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DAHKOTAH LAND 



DAHKOTAH LIFE, 



WITH THE 



HISTORY OF THE FUR TRADERS OF THE EXTREME NORTHWEST 



DURING THE 



FRENCH AND BRITISH DOMINIONS. 



By EDW. D. NEILL, 

SECRETARY OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETT. 



V 

V 



"Nearer, and ever nearer, among the numberless islands 
Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o'er the water, 
Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of hunters and trappers; 
Northward its prow was turned, to the land of the bison and beaver." 

Longfellow's Evanoelinb 



S PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

CHICAGO: S. C. GEIGGS & CO. 

AND BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY. 

1859. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by 

EDWARD DUFFIELD NEILL, 

in the Clerk's OfSce of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 

Kama & susenbebt, btebeottfebs. 






The following pages form the first part of "Neill's History of Min- 
nesota, from the Earliest Exploration to the Present Time." 

The entire work makes an octavo of 628 pages. Printed on fine 
paper, and bound in muslin. Price per copy, $2 50. 

Published by J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia ; and for sale by 
S. C. Gkiggs & Co., Chicago ; and Booksellers generally. 



DAKOTAH LAND 

AND 

DAKOTAH LIFE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Minnesota is the "land of the Dahkotahs." Long 
before their existence was known to civiUzed men, they 
wandered through the forests, between Lake Superior 
and the Mississippi, in quest of the bounding deer, and 
over the prairies beyond in search of the ponderous 
buffalo. 

They are an entirely different group from the Algon- 
quin and Iroquois, who were found by the early settlers 
of the Atlantic States, on the banks of the Connecticut, 
Mohawk, and Susquehanna rivers. Their language is 
much more difficult to comprehend; and, while they 
have many customs in common with the tribes who 
once dwelt in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, 
and Illinois, they have peculiarities which mark them 
as belonging to a distinct family of the aborigines of 
America. 

Winona, Wapashaw, Mendota, Anoka, Kasota, Mah- 
kahto, and other names designating the towns, hamlets, 
and streams of Minnesota, are words derived from the 
Dahkotah vocabulary. 

Between the head of Lake Superior and the Missis- 

4 (49) 



50 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

sippi river, above the Falls of Saint Anthony, is a 
country of many lakes. So numerous are they, and 
interlaced by clear and sparkling brooks, to an aeronaut 
they would appear like a necklace of diamonds, on silver 
filaments, gracefully thrown upon the bosom of Earth. 

Surrounded by forests of the sugar maple — the neigh- 
bouring marshes fertile in the growth of wild rice — the 
waters abounding in fish — the shores once alive with 
the beaver, the otter, the bear, and the fox — they were 
sites just adapted for the residence of an Indian popu- 
lation. 

When the Dahkotahs were first noticed by the Euro- 
pean adventurer, large numbers were occupjdng this 
region of country, and appropriately called by the voya- 
geur, " People of the Lakes." ^ And tradition, asserts 
that here, was the ancient centre of this tribe. Though 
we have traces of their warring and hunting on the 
shores of Lake Superior, there is no satisfactory evidence 
of their residence, east of the Mille Lac region.^ 

The word Dahkotah, by which they love to be desig- 
nated, signifies allied or joined together in friendly com- 
pact, and is equivalent to " E pluribus unum," the motto 
on the seal of the United States. 

In the history of the mission at La Pointe, Wisconsin, 
published nearly two centuries ago, a writer, referring 
to the Dahkotahs, remarks : — 

" For sixty leagues from the extremity of the Upper 
Lake, toward sunset; and, as it were in the centre of 
the western nations, they have all united their force hy 
a general league." 

^ Gens du Lac. 

^ They have no name for Lake Superior. — G. H. Pond, in " Dahkotah 
Tawaxiiku Kin." 



THE NAMES SIOUX, AND DAHKOTAH. 51 

The Dahkotahs in the earliest documents, and even 
until the present day, are called Sioux, Scioux, or Soos. 
The name originated with the early " voyageurs." For 
centuries the Ojibways of Lake Superior waged war 
against the Dahkotahs ; and, whenever they spoke of 
them, called them Nadowaysioux, which signifies ene- 
mies. 

The French traders, to avoid exciting the attention 
of Indians, while conversing in their presence, were 
accustomed to designate them by names, which would 
not be recognised. 

The Dahkotahs were nicknamed Sioux, a word com- 
posed, of the two last syllables, of the Ojibway word, for 
foes. 

Charlevoix, who visited Wisconsin in 1721, in his 
history of New France says : " The name of Sioux, that 
we give to these Indians, is entirely of our own making, 
or rather it is the last two syllables of the name of 
Nadouessioux, as many nations call them." 

From an early period, there have been three great 
divisions of this people, which have been subdivided 
into smaller bands. The first are called the Isanyati, 
the Issati of Hennepin, after one of the many lakes 
at the head Avaters of the river, marked on modern 
maps, by the unpoetic name of Rum. It is asserted by 
Dahkotah missionaries now living, that this name was 
given to the lake because the stone from which they 
manufactured the knife (isan) was here obtained. The 
principal band of the Isanti was the M'dewakanton- 
wan.^ In the journal of Le Sueur, they are spoken 
of as residing on a lake east of the Mississippi. Tra- 

^ Pronounced as if written Medday-wawkawn-twawn. 



52 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

dition says that it was a day's walk from Isantamde or 
Knife Lake. 

On a map prepared in Paris in 1703, Rmn River is 
called the river of the M'dewakantonwans, and the 
Spirit Lake on which they dwelt, was, without doubt, 
Mille Lac of modern charts. 

The second great division is the Ihanktonwan, com- 
monly called Yankton. They appear to have occupied 
the region west of the M'dewakantonwan, and north of 
the Minnesota river. The geographer De Lisle places 
their early residence in the vicinity of Traverse des 
Sioux, extending northward. 

The last division, the Titonwan, hunted west of the 
Ihanktons, and all the early maps mark their villages 
at Lac-qui-parle and Big Stone Lake. 

Hennepin, in August, 1679, in the vicinity of the 
Falls of Niagara, met the Senecas returning from war 
with the Dahkotahs, and with them some captive Tin- 
tonwans (Teetwawns) . 

This division is now the most numerous, and comprises 
about one-half of the whole nation. They have wan- 
dered to the plains beyond the Missouri, and are the 
plundering Arabs of America. Whenever they apj)ear 
in sight of the emigrant train, journeying to the Pacific 
coast, the hearts of the company are filled with painful 
apprehensions. 

North of the Dahkotahs, on Lake of the Woods and 
the watercourses connecting it with Lake Superior, 
were the Assiniboine. These were once a portion of the 
nation. Before the other divisions of the Dahkotahs 
had traded with the French, they had borne their pel- 
tries to the English post, Fort Nelson, on Hudson's Bay, 
and had received in return British manufactures. By 



DIFFERENT DAHKOTAH BANDS. 53 

association with the English, they learned to look upon 
the French with distrust, and in time to be hostile 
towards those who had formed alHances with the 
French. 

Le Sueur writes, in relation to their separation from 
the rest of the nation, in these words : — 

" The Assinipoils speak Scioux, and are certainly of 
that nation. It is only a feio years since they became 
enemies. It thus originated : The Christianaux having 
the use of arms before the Scioux, through the English 
at Hudson's Bay, they constantly warred upon the 
Asssinipoils, who were their nearest neighbours. The 
latter being weak sued for peace, and, to render it more 
lasting, married the Christianaux women. The other 
Scioux, who had not made the compact, continued to 
war, and seeing some Christianaux with the Assinipoils, 
broke their heads." After this there was aUenation. A 
letter, however, written at Fort Bourbon, on Hudson's 
Bay, about 1695, remarks : " It is said that the Assini- 
boins are a nation of the Sioux, which separated from 
them a long time ago." 

The Dahkotahs call these alienated tribes Hohays, 
and make woman the cause of the separation. They 
are said to have belonged to the Ihanktonwan (Yankton) 
division of the nation. A quarrel, tradition asserts, 
occurred between two famihes hunting at the time in 
the vicinity of Lake Traverse. A young man seduced 
the wife of one of the warriors. The injured husband, 
in attempting to rescue his wife, was killed in the tent 
of the seducer. His father and some relatives wanted 
to secure the corpse. On the road, they were met, by 
some of the friends of the guilty youth, and three of 
their number were killed. The father then turned back 



54 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

and raised a party of sixty warriors, who waged war 
against the seducer and his friends, which continued 
until the whole band were involved, and ended in a 
revolt upon the part of the aggressor and his friends, who 
in time became a separate people. 

In the valleys of the Blue Earth, the Des Moines, and 
the eastern tributaries of the Missouri, within the limits 
of the territory of Minnesota, there also dwelt in ancient 
days bands of the loways, Ottoes, Cheyennes, Aricarees, 
and Omahaws, who sought other hunting-grounds as 
the Dahkotahs advanced westward. 

The Dahkotahs, like all ignorant and barbarous peo- 
ple, have but Uttle reflection beyond that necessary to 
gratify the pleasure of revenge and of the appetite. 

It would be strange to find heroes among skulking 
savages, or maidens hke "Minnehaha" of the poet, 
among those whose virtue can be easily purchased. 
While there are exceptions, the general characteristics 
of the Dahkotahs, and all Indians, are indolence, im- 
purity, and indifference to the future. 

The rehgion of this people is exceedingly indistinct, 
and with reluctance do they converse on the subject. 
That a nation so low in the scale of humanity should 
have preserved the idea of one great spirit, the father 
of all spirits, the supreme and most perfect of beings, 
is not to be supposed. To attribute to them more 
elevated conceptions than those of the cultivated Athe- 
nians, is perfect absurdity. The Dahkotahs, in their 
reUgious belief, are polytheists. The hunter, as he 
passes over the plains, finds a granite boulder : he stops 
and prays to it, for it is " Wawhawn'' — mysterious or 
supernatural. At another time, he will pray to his 
dog; and at another time, to the sun, moon, or stars. 



DAHKOTAH WORSHIP AND GODS. 55 

In every leaf, in every stone, in every shrub, there is a 
spirit. It may be said of them, as Cotton Mather said 
of the Massachusetts Indians, in his Life of Ehot : " All 
the religion they have amounts to thus much : they 
believe that there are many gods, who made and own 
the several nations of the world. They believe that 
every remarkable creature has a peculiar god within or 
about it ; there is with them a sun god or a moon god 
and the like ; and they cannot conceive but that the fire 
must be a kind of god, inasmuch as a spark of it will 
soon produce very strange effects. They believe that 
when any good or ill happens to them, there is the 
favour or anger of a god expressed in it." 

The Dahkotahs have greater and minor deities, and 
they are supposed to multiply as men and animals, and 
the superior to have power to exterminate the inferior. 

The Jupiter Maximus of the Dahkotahs is styled 
Oanktayhee. As the ancient Hebrews avoided speak- 
ing the name of Jehovah, so they dishke to speak the 
name of tliis deity, but call him " Taku-wakan," or 
" That which is supernatural." This mighty god mani- 
fests himself as a large ox. His eyes are as large as the 
moon. He can haul in his horns and tail, or he can 
lengthen them, as he pleases. From him proceed in- 
\dsible influences. In his extremities reside mighty 
powers. 

He is said to have created the earth. Assembling in 
grand conclave all of the aquatic tribes, he ordered them 
to bring up dirt from beneath the water, and proclaimed 
death to the disobedient. The beaver and others for- 
feited their hves. At last the muskrat went beneath 
the waters, and, after a long time, appeared at the sur- 
face nearly exhausted, with some dirt. From this, 



56 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Oanktayhee fashioned the earth into a large circular 
plain. 

The earth being finished, he took a deity, one of his 
own offspring, and grinding him to powder, sprinkled it 
upon the earth, and this produced many worms. The 
worms were then collected and scattered again. They 
matured into infants ; and these were then collected and 
scattered and became full-grown Dahkotahs. 

The bones of the mastodon, the Dahkotahs think, are 
those of Oanktayhee, and they preserve them with the 
greatest care in the medicine bag. It is the belief of 
the Dahkotahs that the Rev. R. Hopkins, who was 
drowned at Traverse des Sioux, on July 4th, 1851, was 
killed by Oanktayhee, who dwells in the waters, because 
he had preached against him. 

This deity is supposed to have a dwelhng-place 
beneath the Falls of Saint Anthony. A few years ago, 
by the sudden breaking up of a gorge of ice, a cabin 
near Fort Snelling, containing a soldier, was swept off 
by the flood. The Dahkotahs supposed that this great 
god was descending the river at the time, and, being 
hungry, devoured the man. 

Hay-o-kah [the anti-natural god) . — There are four per- 
sons in this godhead. The first appears like a tall and 
slender man with two faces, like the Janus of ancient 
mythology. Apollo-like, he holds a bow in his hand 
streaked with red lightning, also a rattle of deer claws. 
The second is a little old man with a cocked hat and 
enormous ears, holding a yellow bow. The third, a man 
with a flute suspended from his neck. The fourth is 
invisible and mysterious, and is the gentle zephyr which 
bends the grass and causes the ripple of the water. 

Hayokah is a perfect paradox. He calls bitter sweet, 



HATOKAH, AND OTHER DEITIES. 57 

and sweet bitter ; lie groans when he is full of joy ; ho 
laughs when he is in distress ; he calls black, white, and 
white, black ; when he wishes to tell the truth he speaks 
a lie, and when he desires to lie, he speaks the truth ; in 
winter he goes naked, and in summer he wraps up in 
buffalo robes. The little hills on the prairies are called 
Hay-o-kah-tee, or the house of Hay-o-kah, Those whom 
he inspires, can make the winds blow ajid the rain fall, 
the grass to grow and wither. 

There is said to exist a clan who especially adore this 
deity, and at times dance in his honour. At dawn of day 
they assemble within a teepee, in the centre of which is 
a fire, over which are suspended kettles. With cone- 
shaped hats and ear-rings, both made of bark, and loins 
girded with the same material, they look like incarnate 
demons. On their hats are zigzag streaks of paint — 
representations of lightning. 

The company remain seated and smoking around the 
fire, until the water in the kettle begins to boil, which 
is a signal for the commencement of the dance. The 
excitement now becomes intense. They jump, shout, 
and sing around the fire, and at last plunge their hands 
into the cauldron, seize and eat the boiled meat. Then 
they throw the scalding water, on each others backs, 
the sufferers never wincing, but insisting that it is cold. 

Taku-shkan-shkan. — This deity is supposed to be 
invisible, yet everywhere present. He is full of revenge, 
exceedingly wrathful, very deceitful, and a searcher of 
hearts. His favourite haunts are the four winds, and 
the granite boulders strewn on the plains of Minnesota. 
He is never so happy as when he beholds scalps, warm 
and reeking with blood. 

The object of that strange ceremony of the Dahko- 



58 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

talis, in wMch the performer being bound hand and foot 
with the greatest care, is suddenly unbound by an invi- 
sible agent, is to obtain an interview with Taku-shkan- 
shkan. 

The name of another one of the superior divinities 
is Wahkeenyan. His teepee is supposed to be on a 
mound on the top of a high mountain, in the far West. 
The teepee or tent has four openings, with sentinels 
clothed in red down. A butterfly is stationed at the 
east, a bear at the west, a fawn at the south, and a 
reindeer at the north entrance. He is supposed to be 
a gigantic bird, the flapping of whose wings makes 
thunder. He has a bitter enmity against Oanktayhee, 
and attempts to kill his ofispring. The high water a 
few years ago was supposed to be caused by his shooting 
through the earth, and allowing the water to flow out. 
When the lightning strikes their teepees or the ground, 
they think that Oanktayhee was near the surface of the 
earth, and that Wahkeenyan, in great rage, fired a hot 
thunderbolt at him. 

By him wild rice, is said to have been created, also 
the spear, and tomahawk. 

A bird of thunder was once killed, the Indians assert, 
near Kaposia. Its face resembled the human counte- 
nance. Its nose was hooked like the bill of an eagle. 
Its wings had four joints, and zigzag like the lightning. 

About thirty miles from Big Stone Lake, near the 
head waters of the Minnesota, there are several small 
lakes bordered with oak-trees. This is the supposed 
birth-place of the Thunder Bird, and is called the Nest 
of Thunder. The first step the spirit ever took in this 
world was equal to that of the hero, in the child's story, 
who wore seven-league boots, being twenty-five miles in 
length. A rock is pointed out which has a foot-like 



WAHKEENY AN.— THUNDER BIRD. 59 

impression, whicli they say is his track ; and the hill is 
called Thunder Tracks. 

A son of Colonel Snelling, the first commander of 
the fort of that name, in a poem, which is pubhshed in 
Griswold's collection of American poetry, alludes to the 
foregoing incidents : — 

" The moon that night withheld her light. 
By fits, instead, a lurid glare 
Illumed the skies ; while mortal eyes 

Were closed, and voices rose in prayer 
While the revolving sun 
Three times his course might run, 

The dreadful darkness lasted ; 
And all that time the red man's eye 
A sleeping spirit might espy, 
Upon a tree-top cradled high, 

Whose trunk his breath had blasted. 
So long he slept, he grew so fast, 

Beneath his weight the gnarlfed oak 
Snapped, as the tempest snaps the mast : 

It fell, and Thunder woke ! 
The world to its foundation shook. 
The grizzly bear his prey forsook, 
The scowling heaven an aspect bore 
That man had never seen before ; 
The wolf in terror fled away. 
And shone at last the light of day. 

" 'Twas here he stood ; these lakes attest 
Where first Waw-kee-an's footsteps press'd. 
About his burning brow a cloud. 

Black as the raven's wing, he wore ; 
Thick tempests wrapt him like a shroud, 

Red lightnings in his hand he bore ; 
Like two bright suns his eyeballs shone, 
His voice was like the cannon's tone ; 
And, where he breathed, the land became, 
Prairie and wood, one sheet of flame. 

*' Not long upon this mountain height 
The first and worst of storms abode. 



60 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Tor, moving in his fearful might, 

Abroad the GoD-begotten strode. 
Afar, on yonder faint blue mound, 
In the horizon's utmost bound, 
At the first stride his foot he set ; 

The jarring world confessed the shock. 
Stranger ! the track of Thunder yet 

Remains upon the living rock. 

" The second step, he gained the sand 
On far Superior's storm-beat strand : 
Then with his shout the concave rung, 
As up to heaven the giant sprung 

On high, beside his sire to dwell ; 
But still, of all the spots on earth. 
He loves the woods that gave him birth. — 

Such is the tale our fathers tell." 

After an individual has dreamed in relation to the 
sun, there are sacred ceremonies. Two persons are the 
participants, who assume a peculiar attitude. Almost 
naked, holding a small whistle in their mouths, they 
look towards the sun, and dance with a strange and 
awkward step. One of their interpreters remarks, 
" The nearest and best comparison I can make of them 
when worshipping, is a frog held up by the middle with 
its legs half drawn up." 

During the continuance of the ceremony, which may 
last two or three days, the parties fast. 

When a Dahkotah is troubled in spirit, and desires to 
be delivered from real or imaginary danger, he will select 
a stone that is round and portable, and, placing it in a 
spot free from grass and underbrush, he will streak it 
with red paint, and, offering to it some feathers, he will 
pray to it for help. The stone, after the ceremony is 
over, does not appear to be regarded with veneration. 
K visitors request them, they can be obtained. 



SACRED MEN INITIATED. 61 



CHAPTER 11. 

In all nations where the masses are unenlightened, 
their spiritual nature is uncultivated, and they beheve 
whatever a class of men pretending to have authority 
from the spirit world, may impose upon them. All 
ignorant communities are superstitious and easily priest- 
ridden. The early Britons looked upon the Druids, as 
a supernatural, and wonder-working class, and they 
fed, and feared them. The Wawkawn, or medicine 
men, hold the same relation to the Dahkotahs as the 
Druids to the ancient Britons. They are the most 
powerful and influential of the tribe. They are looked 
upon as a species of demi-gods. They assert their 
origin to be miraculous. At first they are spiritual 
existences, encased in a seed of some description of a 
winged nature, like the thistle. Wafted by the breeze 
to the dwelling-place of the gods, they are received to 
intimate communion. After being instructed in relar 
tion to the mysteries of the spirit world, they go forth 
to study the character of all tribes. After deciding 
upon a residence, they enter the body of some one 
about to become a mother, and are ushered by her into 
the world. A great majority of the M'dewakantonwans 
are medicine men. 

When an individual desires to belong to this priest- 



62 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

hood, he is initiated by what is termed a "medicine 
dance." This dance is said to have been instituted 
by Oanktayhee, the patron of medicine men. The 
editor of the "Dahkotah Friend," in a description of 
this dance, remarks : — 

" When a member is to be received into this society, 
it is his duty, to take the hot bath, four days in succes- 
sion. In the mean time, some of the elders of the 
society instruct him in the mysteries of the medicine, 
and Wahmnoo-^ah — shell in the throat. He is also 
provided with a dish (wojute) and spoon. On the side 
of the dish is sometimes carved the head of some vora- 
cious animal, in which resides the spirit of Eeyah (glut- 
ton god). This dish is always carried by its owner to 
the medicine feast, and it is his duty, ordinarily, to eat 
all which is served up in it. Gray Iron has a dish 
which was given him at the time of his initiation, on 
the bottom of which is carved, a bear complete. The 
candidate is also instructed with what paints, and in 
what manner, he shall paint himself, which must always 
be the same, when he appears in the dance. There is 
supernatural virtue in this paint, and the manner in 
which it is applied ; and those who have not been fur- 
nished with a better, by the regular war prophets, wear 
it into battle, as a life-preserver. The bag contains 
besides, the claws of animals, with the toanwan of 
which they can, it is behoved, inflict painful diseases 
and death on whomsoever, and whenever, they desire. 

" The candidate being thus duly prepared for initia- 
tion, and having made the necessary offerings for the 
benefit of the institution, on the evening of the day pre- 
vious to the dance a lodge is prepared, and from ten to 
twenty of the more substantial members pass the night 



MEDICINE DANCE AND SONGS. 63 

in singing, dancing, and feasting. In the morning, the 
tent is opened for the dance. After a few appropriate 
ceremonies preliminary to the grand operation, the can- 
didate takes his place on a pile of blankets which he 
has contributed for the occasion, naked, except the 
breech-cloth and moccasins, duly painted and prepared 
for the mysterious operation. An elder having been 
stationed in the rear of the novice, the master of the 
ceremonies, with his knee and hip joints bent to an 
angle of about forty-five degrees, advances, with an 
unsteady, unnatural step, with his bag in his hand, 
uttermg, " Heen^ heen, heen,^^ with great energy, and 
raising the bag near a painted spot on the breast of the 
candidate, gives the discharge, the person stationed in 
the rear gives him a push forward at the same instant, 
and as he falls headlong throws the blankets over him. 
Then, while the dancers gather around him and chant, 
the master throws off the covering, and, chewing a piece 
of the bone of the Oanktay^ee, spirts it over him, and 
he revives, and resumes a sitting posture. All then 
return to their seats except the master ; he approaches, 
and, making indescribable noises, pats upon the breast 
of the novice, till the latter, in agonizing throes, heaves 
up the Wahmnoo-Aah or shell, which falls from his 
mouth upon the bag which had been previously spread 
before him for that purpose. Life being now completely 
restored, and with the mysterious shell in his open 
hand, the new-made member passes around and exhi- 
bits it to all the members and to the wondering by- 
standers, and the ceremonies of initiation are closed. 
The dance continues, interspersed with shooting each 
other, rests, smoking, and taking refreshments, till they 
have jumped to the music of four sets of singers. Be- 



64 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

sides vocal music, they make use of the drum and the 
gourd-shell rattle. The following chants, which are 
used in the dance, will best exhibit the character of 
this mysterious institution of the Oanktay/^ee : — 

" Waduta ohna micage. 
Waduta ohna micage. 
Miniyata ite wakan de maqu, 
Tunkanixdan. 

" He created it for me enclosed in red down. 
He created it for me enclosed in red down. 
He in the water with a mysterious visage gave me this, 
My grandfather. 

" Tunkanixdan pejihuta wakan micage, • 

He wicake. 
Miniyata oicage wakan kin maqu ye, 

Tunkanixdan ite kin yuwinta wo. 
Wahutopa yuha ite yuwinto wo. 

" My grandfather created for me mysterious medicine, 
That is true. 
The mysterious being in the water gave it to me. 

Stretch out your hand before the face of my grandfather. 
Having a quadruped, stretch out your hand before him." 

The medicine pouch is the skin of an otter, fox, or 
similar animal, containing certain articles which are 
held sacred. 

A warrior leaving his village to hunt, gave his pouch 
to a friend of the writer, who had dwelt as a missionary 
among the Dahkotahs for a score of years. The owner 
having died, he retained it, and, being at his house one 
day, it was, at my request, opened. The contents were 
some dried mud, a dead beetle, a few roots, and a scrap 
of an old letter, which had probably been picked up 
about the walls of Fort Snelling. 

Where the science of medicine is not understood, the 



PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.— VAPOUR BATH. 60 

inhabitants are very superstitious concerning the sick. 
Those who are prominent in their devotion to the sacred 
rites of a heathen tribe, generally act as physicians. 
The Druids of the early Britons performed the duties 
of doctors, and the conjurers, or medicine men, as they 
are generally termed, are called to attend the sick Dah- 
kotahs. This tribe of Indians are well acquainted with 
the bones of the body ; but no Dr. Hvmter has yet risen 
among them to explain the circulation of the blood, and 
therefore they have but a single word for nerves, arteries, 
and veins. When a young man is sick, he is generally 
well watched; but old persons, and those that have 
some deformity, are often neglected. To effect a cure, 
they often practise what is called steaming. They 
erect a small tent covered with thick buffalo robes, in 
which they place some hot stones. Stripping the sick 
person of his blanket, they place him in the tent. 
Water is then thrown upon the hot stones, which creates 
considerable vapour. After the patient has been confined 
in this close tent for some time, and has perspired pro- 
fusely, they occasionally take him out and plunge him 
into the waters of an adjacent river or lake. 

This custom is very ancient. One of the first white 
men who appear to have resided amongst them, was a 
Franciscan priest, named Hennepin. He was made 
their prisoner in the year 1680, while travelling on the 
Mississippi, above the Wisconsin river. The Dahkotahs 
took him to their villages on the shores of Rum river, 
at Mille Lac, where he was quartered in a chief's lodge, 
whose name was Aquipaguetin. The chief observing 
that Hennepin was much fatigued, ordered an oven to 
be made, which, to use the words of the Franciscan, 
" he ordered me to enter, stark naked, with four 



66 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

savages. The oven was covered with buffalo hides, and 
in it they placed red-hot flint and other stones. They 
ordered me to hold my breath as long as I could. As 
soon as the savages that were with me let go their 
breath, which they did with a great force, Aquipaguetin 
began to sing. The others seconded him ; and laying 
their hands on my body began to rub, and at the same 
time cry bitterly. I was near faulting, and forced to 
leave the oven. At my coming out, I could scarcely 
take up my cloak. However, they continued to make 
me sweat thrice a week, which at last restored me to 
my former vigour." 

When a Dahkotah is very sick, the friends call in a 
conjurer or medicine man. Before we proceed, it is 
proper to explain the meaning of the term " medicine 
man." Anything that is mysterious or wonderful, the 
Dahkotahs call " Wawkawn." The early explorers and 
traders in Minnesota were French, and they always 
call a doctor "medecin." As the Indian doctors are 
all dealers in mysteries, the word "medicine" has at 
last obtained a local signification, meaning anything 
that is mysterious or unaccountable. A "medicine 
man" meanfe, then, a doctor who calls to his aid charms 
and incantations. The medicine men are divided into 
war prophets, and conjurers or doctors. 

A Dahkotah, when he is sick, believes that he is pos- 
sessed by the spirit of some animal, or insect, or enemy. 
The medicine men, are supposed to have great power of 
suction in their jaws, by which they can draw out the 
spirit that afflicts the patient, and thus restore him to 
health. They are much feared by all the tribe. The 
doctor is called to see a sick person by sending some one 
with a present of a horse or blankets, or something as 



MEDICAL PRACTICE. 67 

valuable. The messenger sometimes carries a bell, and 
rings around the lodge until the conjurer makes his 
appearance; at other times he bears to the doctor's 
lodge a lighted pipe, and presenting it to him, places 
his hands on his head and moans. 

" The person sent to call on the doctor, strips himself 
for running, retaining only his breech cloth, and carry- 
ing a bell. He enters the lodge, and without further 
ceremony, strikes the doctor with his foot, jingles his 
bell, and suddenly issuing from the lodge, runs with all 
his might for the sick man's lodge, with the doctor at 
his heels. If the latter overtakes and kicks him before 
he reaches the lodge, he does not proceed any further, 
but returns home. Another person is then despatched, 
and it is not until one is sent who is too swift for him, 
that the doctor's services can be secured." 

The doctor having entered the tent, without touching 
the patient, begins to strip himself, leaving nothing upon 
his body but the breech cloth, and moccasins. Having 
obtained a sacred rattle, which is nothing more than a 
dried gourd, filled with a few kernels of corn, or beads, 
he begins to shake and sing in unearthly monotones. 
He now gets upon his knees, and, to use a vulgarism, 
" crawls on all fours," up to his patient. After a few 
moments we see him rise again retching violently, and 
picking up a bowl of water thrusts his face therein, and 
begins to make a gurgling noise. Into this bowl he 
professes to expectorate the spirit which has incited the 
disease. The doctor having decided what animal has 
possessed his patient, he has an image of the animal made 
out of bark, and placed outside near the tent door in a 
vessel of water. Mr. Prescott, United States Interpreter 
of the Dahkotahs, in a communication upon this subject 



G8 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

says: "The animal made of bark is to be shot. Two 
or three Indians are in waiting, standing near the bowl, 
with loaded guns, ready to shoot when the conjurer 
gives the signal. To be sure that the conjuring shall 
have the desired effect, a woman must stand astride the 
bowl, when the men fire into it, with her dress raised 
as high as the knees. The men are instructed how to 
act by the conjurer ; and as soon as he makes his ap- 
pearance out of doors, they all fire into the bowl, and 
blow the little bark animal to pieces. The woman 
steps aside, and the juggler makes a jump at the bowl 
on his hands and knees, and commences blubbering in 
the water. While this is going on, the woman has to 
jump on the juggler's back, and stand there a moment; 
then she gets off, and as soon as he has finished his 
incantations, the woman takes him by the hair of his 
head, and pulls him back into the lodge. If there are 
any fragments found of the animal that has been shot, 
thoy are buried. If this does not cure, a similar cere- 
mony is performed, but some other kind of animal is 
shaped out." 

Among the earliest songs, to which a Dahkotah child 
listens, are those of war. As soon as he begins to totter 
about, he carries as a plaything, a miniature bow, and 
arrow. The first thing he is taught, as great and truly 
noble, is taking a scalp, and he pants to perform an act, 
which is so manly. At the age of sixteen, he is often 
on the war path. When a boy is of the proper age to 
go to war, he is presented with weapons, or he makes a 
war club. He then consecrates certain parts of animals, 
which he vows, not to eat. After he has killed an enemy, 
he is at liberty, to eat of any one of those portions of an 
animal, from which he agreed to abstain. If he kills 



CRUELTY TO FOES. 69 

another person, the prohibition is taken off from another 
part, until finally he has emancipated himself from his 
oath, by his bravery. Before young men go out on a 
war party, they endeavour to propitiate the patron deity 
by a feast. During the hours of night, they celebrate 
the " armour feast," Avhich is distinguished by drumming, 
smging, and agonizing shrieks. 

The war prophets or priests, by the narrating of pre- 
tended dreams, or by inspiring oratory, incite the tribe 
against an enemy. If a party are successful in securing 
scalps, they paint themselves black, and return home in 
mad triumph. As they approach their village, those 
who are there run forth to greet them, and strip them 
of their clothes, and supply them with others. The 
scalp is very carefully prepared for exhibition, being 
painted red, and stretched upon a hoop, which is fastened 
to a pole. If the scalp is from a man, it is decked with 
an eagle's feather, if from a woman, with a comb. At 
a scalp dance, which we once attended at Kaposia, the 
braves stood on one side of the circle, drumming and 
rattling, and shouting a monotonous song, reminding 
one of a song of chimney sweeps of a city. The 
women, standing opposite to the men, advanced and 
retreated from the men, squeaking in an unearthly man- 
ner, a sort of chorus. This is the chief dance, in which 
the women, engage. If a scalp is taken in summer, they 
dance until the falling of the leaves ; if in winter, until 
the leaves begin to appear. When the scalp is freshly 
painted, as it is four times, it is a great occasion. After 
their mad orgies, have ceased, they burn or bury it. An 
eagle's feather, with a red spot, in the head of some of 
those Indians walking through our settlements, is a badge 
that the possessor has killed a foe. If the feather is 



70 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

notched and bordered with red, or clipped and topped 
with red, it signifies that a throat has been cut. The 
red hand on a blanket, shows that the man has been 
wounded by an enemy ; but the black hand, that he has 
killed his enemy. The Dahkotahs, like other savages 
in war, show no sympathy for sex, infancy, or old age. 
At Pokeguma, the Kaposia band scalped two little girls 
that attended the mission school ; buried a tomahawk in 
their brains; severed the hands from the bodies; and then 
set them up in the sand. Mr. Riggs narrates an inci- 
dent of some of the upper bands of Dahkotahs, pursuing 
a weak Ojibway mother. To save her hfe she swam a 
stream. Half naked she reached the opposite bank, and 
dropped down, too much exhausted to attempt to pro- 
ceed. With the delight of demons just let loose from 
hell, her pursuers came over, stabbed and scalped her. 
Prematurely, ushering her unborn babe into existence, 
they dashed its brains out, upon the ground. Returning 
with a poor, sick mother's scalp, they came home as 
" conquering heroes come," and were received with pride 
and honour. Such is savage warfare, and the savage idea 
of what constitutes true glory. But, notwithstanding 
their horrid mode of warfare, they are not destitute of 
affection for their own offspring or friends. 

The Dahkotahs assert that a mother is with her absent 
children whenever they think of her, and that she feels 
a pain in her breast (or heart) whenever anything of 
moment happens to them. AVlien a child dies, like 
Rachel, they refuse to be comforted. The following 
paraphrase of the lament of a bereaved Indian mother, 
prepared for the " Dakota Friend," is full of poetry : " Me 
choonkshee! Me clioonhshee ! (my daughter, my daughter,) 
alas ! alas ! My hope, my comfort has departed, my 



A MOTHER'S WAIL OVER HER INFANT. 71 

heart is very sad. My joy is turned into sorrow, and 
my song into wailing. Shall I never behold thy sunny 
smile ? Shall I never more hear the music of thy voice ? 
The Great Spirit has entered my lodge in anger, and 
taken thee from me, my first born and only child. I 
am comfortless and must wail out my grief. The pale 
faces repress their sorrow, but we children of nature 
must give vent to ours or die. Me choonkshee ! me 
choonkshee ! 

" The light of my eyes is extinguished ; all, all is dark. 
I have cast from me all comfortable clothing, and robed 
myself in comfortless skins, for no clothing, no fire, can 
warm thee, my daughter. Unwashed and uncombed, I 
will mourn for thee, whose long locks I can never more 
braid ; and whose cheeks I can never again tinge with 
Vermillion. I will cut off my dishevelled hair, for my 
grief is great, me choonkshee ! me choonkshee ! How 
can I survive thee ? How can I be happy, and you a 
homeless wanderer to the spirit land ? How can I eat 
if you are hungry ? I will go to the grave with food 
for your spirit. Your bowl and spoon are placed in 
your coffin for use on the journey. The feast for your 
playmates has been made at the place of interment. 
Knowest thou of their presence ? Me choonkshee ! me 
choonkshee ! 

" When spring returns, the choicest of ducks shall be 
your portion. Sugar and berries also shall be placed 
near your grave. Neither grass nor flowers shall be 
allowed to grow thereon. Affection for thee will keep 
the little mound desolate, like the heart from which 
thou art torn. My daughter, I come, I come. I bring 
you parched corn. Oh, how long will you sleep ? The 
wintry winds wail your requiem. The cold earth is 



72 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

your bed, and the colder snow thy covering. I would 
that they were mine. I will lie down by thy side. I 
will sleep once more with you. If no one discovers me, 
I shall soon be as cold as thou art, and together we will 
sleep that long, long sleep from which I cannot wake 
thee, Me choonkshee ! me choonkshee !" 

A Dahkotah obtains his wives (for they are polyga- 
mists) not by courtship, but by a practice as old as the 
book of Genesis, that of purchase. A young man, when 
he wants a wife, announces the fact, and begs his friends 
to give him an outfit. He then proceeds to the parents 
and makes a purchase. The ancestors of some of the 
first families of Virginia, purchased their wives from the 
London company, for one hundred and twenty or fifty 
pounds of tobacco, at three shillings a pound, but a 
Dahkotah pays a higher price for the article, and takes 
more. Usually they pay a horse, or four or five guns, 
or six or eight blankets, a value equal to thirty or forty 
dollars. 

The chief of the Kaposia band has three wives, who 
are sisters. His second wife he purchased of her father 
while he was drunk, and she but ten years of age. It 
is said that a friend throws a blanket over the bride and 
bears her to the lodge of the purchaser. Though a son- 
in-law lives near the parents of his wife, he never names 
or talks to them, and never looks his wife's mother in 
the face. He thinks it is respectful to act in this 
manner. He occupies a large lodge, while his -svife's 
parents frequently hve in a small one, in the rear, 
whom he supphes with game until he has a family of 
his own. Should the parents accidentally meet him, 
they hide their faces. If the mother starts for the 



THE WOODPECKER CHARM.— DRESS. 73 

daughter's lodge and perceives her husband mside, she 
does not enter. 

If a woman proves faithless to her husband, she is 
frequently shot or has her nose cut oif. This latter 
practice was noticed by Le Sueur, in 1700. There is 
much system in relation to the place in which each 
should sit in a Dahkotah lodge. The wife always occu- 
pies a place next to the entrance on the right. The 
seat of honour, to which a white man is generally 
pointed, is directly opposite to the door of the lodge. 

Like the rest of mankind, they are by no means 
insensible to flattery. When one thinks that he cannot 
obtaui a horse, or some other article that he mshes, 
by a simple request, he will 'take a number of wood- 
peckers' heads, and sing over them in the presence of 
the individual he hopes to influence, recounting the 
honourable deeds of the man to whom he gives the 
birds' heads. This process acts hke a charm, and is 
often successful. 

A Parisian dandy is known the world over, but he is 
not to be compared with a Dahkotah fop. An Indian 
young man passes hours in attiring himself. That green 
streak of paint upon the cheek; those yellow circles 
around the eyes, and those spots upon the forehead, 
have cost him much trouble and frequent gazings into 
his mirror, which he always keeps with him. That 
head-dress, which appears to hang so carelessly, is all 
designed. None knows better than he how to attitudi- 
nize and play the stoic or majestic. No moustachioed 
clerk, with curling locks, and kid gloves, and cambric 
handkerchief, and patent-leather boots, and glossy hat, 
is half so conscious as he who struts past us with his 
streaming blanket and ornamented and uncovered head, 



74 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

holding a pipe or a gun in the place of a cane, and 
wearing moccasins in the place of boots. The rain 
upon his nicely decorated head and face, causes as 
much of a flutter as it does when it falls upon the hat 
of the nice young man who smokes his cigar and pro- 
menades in Broadway. 

When the Dahkotahs are not busy with war, or the 
chase, or the feasts and dances of their religion, time 
hangs heavily, and they either sleep or resort to some 
game to keep up an excitement. One of their games is 
Hke " Hunt the Slipper ;" a bullet or plum-stone is 
placed by one party in one of four moccasins or mittens, 
and sought for by the opposite. There is also the play 
of "plum-stones." At this game much is often lost 
and won. Eight plum-stones are marked with certain 
devices. This game is played by young men and 
females. If, after shaking in a bowl, stones bearing 
certain devices turn up, the game is won. 

The favourite and most exciting game of the Dahko- 
tahs is ball playing. It appears to be nothing more than 
a game which was often played by the writer in school- 
boy days, and which was called " shinny T A smooth 
place is chosen on the prairie or frozen river or lake. 
Each player has a stick three or four feet long and 
crooked at the lower end, with deer strings tied across 
forming a sort of a pocket. The ball is made of a 
rounded knot of wood, or clay covered with hide, and 
is supposed to possess supernatural qualities. Stakes 
are set at a distance of a quarter or half mile, as bounds. 
Two parties are then formed, and the ball being thrown 
up in the centre, the contest is for one party to carry the 
ball from the other beyond one of the bounds. Two or 
three hundred men are sometimes engaged at once. On 



FOOT RACING.— DOG AND FISH DANCES. 75 

a summer's day, to see them rushing to and fro, painted 
in divers colors, with no article of apparel, with feathers 
in their heads, bells around their wrists, and fox and 
wolf tails dangling behind, is a wild and noisy spectacle. 
The eye-witnesses among the Lidians become more 
interested in the success of one or the other of the par- 
ties than any crowd at a horse race, and frequently 
stake their last piece of property on the issue of the 
game. 

On the 13th of July, 1852, the last great ball-play in 
the vicinity of Saint Paul took place. The ground 
selected was Oak Grove, in Hennepin county, and the 
parties were, Shokpay's band, against the Good Road, 
Sky Man, and Gray Iron bands. The game lasted 
several days ; about two hundred and fifty were parti- 
cipants, encompassed by a cloud of witnesses. About 
two thousand dollars' worth of property was won by 
Shokpay's band the first day. The second day they 
were the losers. On the third day Shokpay lost the 
first game, and the stake was renewed. Shokpay lost 
again; but while a new stake was being made up, a 
dispute arose between the parties concerning some of 
the property which had been won from Shokpay's band, 
but which they kept back. They broke up in a row, 
as they usually do. Gray Iron's band leaving the 
ground first, ostensibly for the reason above named, but 
really because Shokpay's band had just been reinforced 
by the arrival of a company from Little Crow's band. 
During the play four or five thousand dollars' worth of 
goods changed hands. 

Like the ancient Greeks, they also practise foot racing. 
Before proceeding to other topics, it is well to give a 
brief account of the dog dance and the fish dance. The 



76 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

first is seldom performed, and is said to be peculiar to 
this nation. A dog being thrown into the midst of the 
crowd of dancers, is speedily " tomahawked" by one of 
the sacred men. The liver is then extracted and cut 
into sUces, after which it is hung upon a pole. Now 
the dancers hop around, their mouths apparently water- 
ing with the desire for a bite. After a time some one 
dances up to the pole and takes a mouthful of the raw 
liver. He is then succeeded by others, until the whole 
is devoured. K another dog is thrown into the circle, 
the same process is repeated. 

" Not long since a Dahkotah chief was sick, and the 
gods signified to him that if he would make a raw 
fish feast, he would live till young cranes' wings are 
grown. So he must make the feast or die. Fifteen or 
twenty others, who, like himself, were inspired by the 
cormorant, joined with him in the ceremonies of the 
feast, of which the chief was master. 

" After one or two days spent in * vapour baths' and 
^ armour feasts,' a tent is prepared, opening towards the 
east. The railing extending from the tent is composed of 
bushes. Within the enclosure each of those who are to 
participate in the feast has a bush set, in which is his 
nest. Early in the morning, on the day of the feast, 
the master informs two others where the fish are to be 
taken, and sends them forth to spear and bring them 
in, designating the kind and number to be taken. On 
this occasion two pike, each about one foot in length, 
were taken, and after having been painted mth Vermil- 
lion and ornamented with red down about the mouth 
and along the back, were laid on some branches in the 
enclosure, entire, as they were taken from the water. 
Near the fish were placed birch-bark dishes filled wHh 



CORMORANT DANCE. 77 

sweetened water. Their implements of war were sol- 
emnly exhibited in the tent, and the dancers, who were 
naked, except the belt, breech-cloth, and moccasins, and 
fantastically painted and adorned with down, red and 
white, being in readiness, the singers, of whom there are 
four ranks, commenced to sing, each rank in its turn. 
The singing was accompanied with the drum and rattle. 

" The cormorant dancers danced to the music, having 
a little season of rest as each rank of singers ended 
their chant, until the fourth rank struck the drum and 
made the welkin ring with their wild notes ; then, like 
starving beasts, they tore off pieces of the fish, scales, 
bones, entrails, and all, with their teeth, and swallowed 
it, at the same time drinking their sweetened water, 
till both the pike were consumed, except the heads and 
fins and large bones, the latter of which were deposited 
in the nests. Thus the feast ended, and the chief will 
of course live till the young cranes can fly. At the 
close of the ceremony, whatever of clothing is worn on 
the occasion is offered in sacrifice to the gods." 

Sufficient has been said to show that the Dahkotahs 
are Odd Fellows; but not the half has been told. 
Among the Ojibways there are totems, or family sym- 
bols, of the name of some ancestor, which is honoured 
as much as the coat of arms among the nobility of Eu- 
rope. If a man dies, his totem is marked upon his 
grave post with as much formality as the heraldic 
design of an English nobleman. It was this custom 
among the Algonquin Indians, that led the unscrupu- 
lous La Hontan to publish engravings of the fabulous 
coats of arms of the various savage nations of the north- 
west. That of the " Outchipoues" (Ojibways) is an 
eagle perched upon a rock, devouring the brain of an 



78 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

owl. That of the Sioux, or Dahkotahs, is a squirrel 
perched upon a citron or pumpkin, and gnawing its 
rind. While the Dahkotahs do not appear to have 
totems or family designs, like the Ojibways, yet, from 
time immemorial, secret clans, with secret signs, have 
existed among them. It is impossible to force any 
member of these clans to divulge any of their proceed- 
ings. Culbertson, who visited the Dahkotahs of the 
Missouri, at the request of the Smithsonian Institution, 
was struck with this peculiarity. His remarks, for the 
entire accuracy of which we do not vouch, are as fol- 
lows : — 

" The Sioux nation has no general council, but each 
tribe and band determines its own affairs. These bands 
have some ties of interest analogous to the ties of our 
secret societies. The ' Crow-Feather-in-Cap' band are 
pledged to protect each others' wives, and to refrain 
from violating them. If the wife of one of their num- 
ber is stolen by another of their number, she is returned, 
the band either paying the thief for returning the stolen 
property, or forcing him to do it, whether he will or 
not. * * :iJ * * 'pjjg 'Strong-Heart' band is 
pledged to protect each other in their horses. Should 
a ' Strong-Heart' from a distance steal some horses, and 
they be claimed by a brother ' Strong-Heart,' his fellows 
v/ould tell him that he must give them up, or they 
would give the robbed man some of their own horses, 
regarding it as the greatest disgrace to themselves to 
allow him to go away on foot. And thus I suppose 
that all these bands have some common object that 
unites them together, and here we have the origin of 
this system of banding. In the absence of law, it 
takes the place of our system of justice." 



WANT OF CLEANLINESS. 79 

The heathen, in their manner of life, are essentially 
the same all over the world. They are all given up to 
uncleanness. As you walk through a small village, in 
a Christian land, you notice many appearances of thrift 
and neatness. The day-labourer has his lot fenced, and 
his rude cabin white-washed. The widow, dependent 
upon her own exertions, and alone in the world, finds 
pleasure in training the honeysuckle or the morning- 
glory to peep in at her windows. The poor seamstress, 
though obliged to lodge in some upper room, has a few 
flower-pots upon her window-sill, and perhaps a canary 
bird hung in a cage outside. But in an Indian village 
all is filth and litter. There are no fences around their 
bark huts. White-washing is a lost art if it was ever 
known. Worn-out moccasins, tattered blankets, old 
breech-cloths, and pieces of leggins are strewn in con- 
fusion all over the ground. Water, except in very warm 
weather, seldom touches their bodies, and the pores of 
their skins become filled with grease and the paint with 
which they daub themselves. Neither Monday, or any 
other day, is known as washing-day. Their cooking 
utensils are incrusted with dirt, and used for a variety of 
purposes. A few years ago, a band of Indians, with their 
dogs, ponies, women, and children, came on board of a 
steamboat on the Upper Mississippi, on which the 
writer was travelling. Their evening meal, consisting 
of beans and wild meat, was prepared on the lower 
deck, beneath the windows of the ladies' cabin. After 
they had used their fingers in the place of forks, and 
consumed the food which they had cooked in a dirty 
iron pan, one of the mothers, removing the blanket 
from one of her children, stood it up in the same pan, 
and then, dipping some water out of the river, began to 



80 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

wash it from head to foot. The rest of the band looked 
on with Indian composure, and seemed to think that 
an iron stew-pan was just as good for washing babes as 
for cooking beans. AVhere there is so much dirt, of 
course vermin must abound. They are not much dis- 
tressed by the presence of those insects which are so 
nauseating to the civiHzed man. Being without shame, 
a common sight, of a summer's eve, is a woman or child 
with her head in another's lap, who is kindly killing 
the fleas and other vermin that are burrowing in the 
long, matted, and uncombed hair. 

The Dahkotahs have no regular time for eating. 
Dependent, as they are, upon hunting and fishing for 
subsistence, they vacillate from the proximity of star- 
vation to gluttony. It is considered uncourteous to 
refuse an invitation to a feast, and a single man will 
sometimes attend six or seven in a day, and eat intem- 
perately. Before they came in contact with the whites, 
they subsisted upon venison, buffalo, and dog meat. 
The latter animal has always been considered a deh- 
cacy by these epicures. In illustration of these remarks, 
I transcribe an extract from a journal of a missionary, 
who visited Lake Traverse in April, 1839 : — 

" Last evening, at dark, our Indians chiefly returned, 
having eaten to the full of buffalo and dog meat. I asked 
one how many times they were feasted. He said, ' Six, 
and if it had not become dark so soon, we should have 
been called three or four times more.' * * * This 
morning, ' Burning-Earth' (chief of the Sissetonwan 
Dahkotahs), came again to our encampment, and re- 
moving we accompanied him to his village at the south- 
western end of the lake. * * * In the afternoon, 
I visited the chief; found him just about to leave for 



IRREGULAR MODE OF LIFE. 81 

a dog feast to which he had been called. When he had 
received some papers of medicine I had for him, he left, 
saying, '■ The Sioux love dog meat as well as white 
people do pork.' " 

In this connection, it should be stated that the Dah- 
kotahs have no regular hours of retiring. Enter a New 
England village after nine o'clock, and all is still. Walk 
through Philadelphia after the State House clock has 
struck eleven, and everybody and thing, hacks, hack- 
men, and those on foot, appear to be hastening to rest; 
the lam^D in the store, the entry and parlour, is extin- 
guished, and lights begin to flicker in the chambers and 
in the garrets, and soon all are quiet, except rogues and 
disorderly persons, and those who watch ; and you can 
hear the clock tick in the entry, and the watchman's 
slow step as he walks up and down the street. But 
there is nothing like this in an Indian village. The}^ 
sleep whenever inclination prompts ; some by day and 
some by night. 

If you were to enter a Dahkotah village, at midnight, 
you might, perhaps, see some few huddled round the 
fire of a teepee, listening to the tale of an old warrior, 
who has often engaged in bloody conflict with their 
ancient and present enemies, the Ojibways; or you 
might hear the unearthly chanting of some medicine 
man, endeavouring to exorcise some spirit from a sick 
man ; or see some lounging about, whifiing out of their 
sacred red stone pipes, the smoke of kinnikinnick, a 
species of willow bark; or some of the young men 
sneaking around a lodge, and waiting for the lodge-fire 
to cease to flicker before they perpetrate some deed of 
sin ; or you might hear a low, wild drumming, and then 
a group of men, all naked, with the exception of a 



82 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

girdle round the loins, daubed with vermillion and 
other paints, all excited, and engaged in some of their 
grotesque dances ; or a portion may be firing their guns 
into the air, being alarmed by some imaginary evil, and 
supposing that an enemy is lurking around. 



CHAPTER III. 



Dahkotah females deserve the sympathy of every 
tender heart. From early childhood they lead " worse 
than a dog's life." Like the Gibeonites of old, they are 
the hewers of wood, and the drawers of water for the 
camp. On a winter's day, a Dahkotah mother is often 
obliged to travel five or eight or ten miles with the 
lodge, camp-kettle, axe, child, and small dogs upon her 
back. Arriving late in the afternoon at the appointed 
camping-ground, she clears off the snow from the spot 
upon which she is to erect the teepee. She then, from 
the nearest marsh or grove, cuts down some poles about 
ten feet in length. With these she forms a frame work 
for the tent. Unstrappmg her pack, she unfolds the 
tent-cover, Avhich is seven or eight buffalo skins stitched 
together, and brings the bottom part to the base of the 
frame. She now obtains a long pole, and fastening it 
to the skin covering, she raises it. The ends are drawn 
around the frame until they meet, and the edges of the 
covering are secured by wooden skewers or tent pins. 
The poles are then spread out on the ground, so as to 
make as large a circle inside as she desires. Then she, 



THE HARDSHIPS OF DAHKOTAH FEMALES. 83 

or her children, proceed to draw the skins down so as to 
make them fit tightly. An opening is left where the 
poles meet at the top, to allow the smoke to escape. 
The fire is built upon the ground in the centre of the 
lodge. Buffalo skins are placed around, and from seven 
to fifteen lodge there through a winter's night, with far 
more comfort than a child of luxury upon a bed of 
down. Water is to be drawn and wood cut for the 
night. The camp-kettle is suspended, and preparations 
made for the evening meal. If her lord and master has 
not by this time arrived from the day's hunt, she is 
busied in mending up moccasins. Such is a scene which 
has been enacted by hundreds of females this very winter 
in Minnesota. How few of the gentle sex properly ap- 
preciate the everlasting obhgations they are under to 
the Son of Mary, after the flesh, who was the first that 
taught the true sphere and the true mission of woman ! 
The Dahkotah wife is subject to all of the whims of 
her husband, and woe unto her when he is in bad 
humour ! As a consequence, the females of this nation 
are not possessed of very happy faces, and frequently 
resort to suicide to put an end to earthly troubles. 
Uncultivated, and made to do the labour of beasts, when 
they are desperate, they act more like infuriated brutes 
than creatures of reason. Some years ago a lodge was 
pitched at the mouth of the St. Croix. The wife, fear- 
ing her husband would demand the whiskey keg, when 
he came from hunting, hid it. Upon his return, she 
refused to tell him where it was, and he flogged her. 
In her rage, she went ofi* and hung herself. At Oak 
Grove, a little girl, the pet of her grandmother, was 
whipped by her father. The old woman, sympathizing 
with the child, flew into a passion and went off". At 



84 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

last, the screaming of the grandchild was heard, for she 
had discovered her " grandma' " hanging by a portage 
collar from a burial scaffold. An assistant female 
teacher in the mission school, being attracted by the 
noise, went and cut the " old granny" down before life 
had fled. On another occasion, at the same place, a 
son-in-law refused to give his mother some whiskey, and 
in a rage she went on to the burial scaffold, tied the 
portage strap around her neck, and was about to jump 
off, when Mr. Pond came up to her and cut the strap. 
Still she did not relinquish her intention of suicide. At 
last, he climbed on to the scaffold and told her he would 
stay there as long as she. Other females from the 
village then came out, and succeeded in persuading her 
to live a little while longer. In this connexion, an 
incident may be told, which, for romantic interest, can- 
not be surpassed. The girl, since the occurrence, which 
we substantially narrate as we find it in the " Pioneer," 
without being responsible for every particular, be- 
came a pupil in the Kev. Mr. Hancock's mission school 
at Remnica or Red Wing Village. 

In the spring of 1850, a young girl, fourteen years of 
age, shot another girl with whom she was quarrelling. 
The deceased was a daughter of a sullen man by the 
name of Black Whistle. The affrighted girl, after she 
fired the gun, fled to the trader's house, and was by him 
aided to make her escape down to Wapashaw's village. 
While stopping at Red Wing's village, some hundred 
miles from the place where the deed was committed, the 
incensed father overtook her. His first plan was to 
carry her home and sacrifice her at his daughter's burial 
scaffold; but, through the influence of some of the 
whites, he changed his plan, and resolved to make her 



THE DISGUISED GIRL.— WANT OF LAW. 85 

Lis slave or Ms wife. For some time she endured what 
to her was a living death, but on one night she suddenly 
disappeared. Not many days after, there appeared at 
Good Road's village, a young Indian boy, stating that 
he was a Sisseton, and had just arrived from the plains. 
He was well received, no one dreaming that he was the 
Indian maid. While in this disguise, she went out one 
day to spear fish, when her husband and enemy, the 
revengeful father of the girl she had shot, met her, and 
inquired for her, and avowed his intention to kill her. 
She very coolly assented to the justice of what he said, 
and left. At last, her real sex being suspected, she 
came down to Little Crow or Kaposia village. Here 
she passed herself off as a Winnebago orphan, which 
disguise succeeded for a time. But soon she was sus- 
pected, and was again obliged to seek safety in flight, 
and at last took up her residence at Red Wing's village, 
thousrh for a lono; time no one knew what had become 
of her. 

It is an erroneous idea that chiefs have any authority. 
Popularity is the source of power, and they resort to 
measures which vie with those of the modern dema- 
gogue, to gain the ear of the people. They never 
express an opinion on any important point, until they 
have canvassed the band over which they preside, and 
their opinions are always those of the majority. 

The Dahkotahs suffer much for want of law. The 
individual who desires to improve his condition is not 
only laughed at, but maltreated. Moreover, if he ac- 
quires any property, there is no law which secures it to 
him, and it is liable to be taken away at any time by 
any ill-disposed person. Until this state of things is 
altered by the interposition of the United States govern- 



80 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

ment, or the iiiterposition of Providence in some unfore- 
seen way, there is little hope of elevating this tribe. 
Their missionary will be forced to look upon this degra- 
dation, and say, in view thereof, " My whole head is 
sick, my whole heart faint." 

The superstitions and peculiarities of the Dahkotahs 
are so various that we can but barely glance at them. 
They count years by winters, and compute distances by 
the number of nights passed upon a journey; their 
months are computed by moons, and are as follows : — 

1. Wi-TERi, January ; the hard moon. 

2. WiCATA-wi, February ; the raccoon moon. 

3. IsTAwiCAYAZAN-wi, March; the sore-eye moon. 

4. Magaokadi-wi, April; the moon in which the 
geese lay eggs: also called Wokadar-wi; and, sometimes, 
Watopapi-wi, the moon when the streams are again 
navigable. 

5. WoJUPi-wi, May; the planting moon. 

6. Wajustecasa-wi, June; the moon when the straw- 
berries are red. 

7. Canpasapa-wi, and Wasunpa-wi, July; the moon 
when the choke-cherries are ripe, and when the geese 
shed their feathers. 

8. Wasuton-wi, August; the harvest moon. 

9. PsiNHNAKETU-wi, September; the moon when rice 
is laid up to dry. 

10. Wi-wAJUPi, October; the drying rice moon; some- 
times written AVazupi-wi. 

11. Takiyura-wi, November; the deer-rutting moon. 

12. Tahecapsun-wi, December; the moon when the 
deer shed their horns. 

They believe that the moon is made of something as 
good as green-cheese. The popular notion is that when 



RELIGIOUS RITES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 87 

the moon is full, a great number of very small mice 
commence nibbling until they have eaten it up. A new 
moon then begins to grow until it is full, then it is 
devoured. 

Though almost every Dahkotah young man has his 
pocket mirror, a maid does not look at a looking-glass, 
for it is " wakan" or sacred. Almost everything that 
the man owns is wakan or sacred, but nothing that the 
woman possesses is so esteemed. If one has a toothache, 
it is supposed to be caused by a woodpecker concealed 
within, or the gnawing of a worm. Coughs are occa- 
sioned by the sacred men operating through the medium 
of the down of the goose, or the hair of the buffalo. It 
is considered a sin to cut a stick that has once been 
placed on the fire, or to prick a piece of meat with an 
awl or needle. It is wrong for a woman to smoke 
through a black pipe-stem, and for a man to wear a 
woman's moccasins. It is also sinful to throw gun- 
powder on the fire. 

This tribe of Indians believe that an individual has 
several souls. Le Sueur said that they thought that 
they had three souls, but the sacred men say that a 
Dahkotah has four souls. At death one of these re- 
mains with or near the body ; one in a bundle contain- 
ing some of the clothes and hair of the deceased, which 
the relatives preserve until they have an opportunity 
to throw them into the enemy's country ; one goes into 
the spirit land ; and one passes into the body of a child 
or some animal. 

They have a fear of the future, but no fixed belief in 
relation to the nature of future punishment. They are 
generally taciturn on such topics. The more simple- 
minded beheve that a happy land exists across a lake 



88 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

of boiling water, and that an old woman sits on the 
shore holding a long narrow pole, that stretches across 
the water to the earth. Warriors who can show marks 
of wounds on their flesh, can walk the pole with 
security; also infants, whose blue veins are a passport 
as good as war marks. Others slip into the boihng 
water. 

Their theology makes no difference between the con- 
dition of the thief and liar and the correct and good 
man. Those who commit suicide are thought to be 
unhappy. They believe that a woman who commits 
suicide will have to drag through another world that 
from which she hung herself in this, and that she will 
often break down the corn in another land by the j)ole 
or tree which dangles at her feet, and for this will be 
severely beaten by the inhabitants of the spirit land. 

When any one dies, the nearest friend is very anxious 
to go and kill an enemy. A father lost a child while 
the treaty of 1851 was pending at Mendota, and he 
longed to go and kill an Ojibway. As soon as an indi- 
vidual dies, the corpse is wrapped in its best clothes. 
Some one acquainted with the deceased then harangues 
the spirit on the virtues of the departed ; and the friends 
sit around with their faces smeared with a black pig- 
ment, the signs of mourning. Their lamentations are 
very loud, and they cut their thighs and legs with 
their finger nails or pieces of stone, to give free vent, as 
it would appear, to their grief The corpse is not 
buried, but placed in a box upon a scaffold some eight 
or ten feet from the ground. Hung around the scaffold 
are such things as would please the spirit if it was still 
in the flesh — such as the scalp of an enemy or pots of 
food. After the corpse has been exposed for some 



SCHILLER'S POEM.— BULWER, HERSCHELL. 



89 



months, and the bones only remain, they are buried in 
a heap, and protected from the wolves by stakes. 

On the bluff, above the dilapidated cave which form? 
the eastern hmit of Saint Paul, there is an ancient 
burial place. Here the Dahkotahs formerly brought 
their dead, and performed solemn services. 

Carver, in his Travels, publishes the alleged speech 
over the remains of a Dahkotah brave — the reading of 
which so attracted the attention of the great German 
poet, Schiller, that he composed a poem called the 
" Song of a Nadowessee Chief" Goethe considered it 
one of his best, "and wished he had made a dozen 
such." 

Sir John Herschell and Sir E. L. Bulwer have each 
attempted a translation, both of which seem to convey 
the spirit of the original., ,y^.^^^ --; -.C-aA- 



SIB E. L. BULWEr's. 



SIB JOHN HEBSCHELL'S. 



See on his mat — as if of yore, 

All life-like sits he here ! 
With that same aspect which he wore 

When light to him was dear. 

But where the right hand's strength ? and where 
The breath that loved to breathe, 

To the Great Spirit aloft in air. 
The peace-pipe's lusty wreath? 

And where the hawk-like eye, alas! 

That wont the deer pursue, 
Along the waves of rippling grass. 

Or fields that shone with dew ? 

Are these the limber, bounding feet 

That swept the winter's snows? 
What stateliest stag so fast and fleet? 

Their speed outstripped the roe's I 

These arms, that then the steady bow 

Could supple from its pride. 
How stark and helpless hang they now 

Adown the stiffened side ! 



See, where upon the mat, he sits 

Erect, before his door, 
With just the same majestic air 

That once in life he wore. 

But where is fled his strength of limb. 
The whirlwind of his breath, 

To the Great Spirit, when he sent 
The peace-pipe's mounting wreath? 

Where are those falcon eyes, which late 
Along the plain could trace. 

Along the grass's dewy wave. 
The reindeer's printed pace ? 

Those legs, which once, with matchless 
Flew through the drifted snow, 

Surpassed the stag's unwearied course. 
Outran the mountain roe? 



Those arms, once used with might and main, 

The stubborn bow to twang ? 
See, see, their nerves are slack at last, 

All motionless they hang. 



90 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



SIR E. L. BULVfER S. 

Yet weal to him — at peace he stays 

Wherenever fall the snows; 
Where o'er the meadows springs the maize 

That mortal never sows. 

Where birds are blithe on every brake — 
Where forests teem with deer — 

Where glide the fish through every lake — 
One chase from year to year ! 

With spirits now he feasts above ; 

All left us — to revere 
The deeds we honour with our love, 

The dust we bury here. 

Here bring the last gift! loud and shrill 
Wail, death dirge for the brave!, 

What pleased him most in life may still 
Give pleasure in the grave. 

We lay the axe beneath his head 

He swung when strength was strong— 

The bear on which his banquets fed — 
The way from earth is long! 

And here, new sharped, place the knife 

That severed from the clay. 
From which the axe had spoiled the life, 

The conquered scalp away ! 

The paints that deck the dead bestow^ 
Yes, place them in his hand — 

That red the kingly shade may glow 
Amid the spirit-land. 



SIR JOHN HERSCHELL S. 

'Tig well with him, for he is gone 

Where snow no more is found, 
Where the gay thorn's perpetual bloom 

Decks all the field around ; 

Where wild birds sing from every spray, 

Where deer come sweeping by, 
Where fish from every lake, afford 

A plentiful supply. 

With spirits now he feasts above, 

And leaves us here alone, 
To celebrate his valiant deeds. 

And round his grave to moan. 

Sound the death-song, bring forth the gifta, 

The last gifts of the dead, — 
Let all which yet may yield him joy 

Within his grave be laid. 

The hatchet place beneath his head, 

Still red with hostile blood ; 
And add, because the way is long, 

The bear's fat limbs for food. 

The scalpingknife beside him lay. 

With paints of gorgeous dye. 
That in the land of souls his form 

May shine triumphantly. 



The legends of the Dahkotahs are numerous, and 
while many are puerile, a few are beautiful. 

Eagle-Eye, the son of a great war prophet, who lived 
more than one hundred years ago, was distinguished for 
bravery. Fleet, athletic, symmetrical, a bitter foe and 
warm friend, he was a model Dahkotah. In the ardour 
of his youth, his affections were given to one who was 
also attractive, named Scarlet Dove. 

A few moons after she had become an inmate of his 
lodge, they descended the Mississippi, with a hunting 
party, and proceeded east of Lake Pepin. 



SCARLET DOVE.— ANPETUSAPA. 91 

One day, while Eagle-Eye was hid behind some 
bushes, watching for deer, the arrow of a comrade 
found its way through the covert, into his heart. With 
only time to lisp the name Scarlet Dove, he expired. 

For a few days the widow mourned and cut her flesh, 
and then, with the silence of woe, wrapping her beloved 
in skins, she placed him on a temporary burial scaffold, 
and sat beneath. 

When the hunting party moved, she carried on her 
own back the dead body of Eagle-Eye. At every en 
campment she laid the body up in the manner already 
mentioned, and sat down to watch it and mourn. 

When she had reached the Minnesota river, a dis- 
tance of more than a hundred miles, Scarlet Dove 
brought forks and poles from the woods, and erected a 
permanent scaffold on that beautiful hill opposite the 
site of Fort Snelling, in the rear of the little town of 
Mendota, which is known by the name of Pilot Knob. 
Having adjusted the remains of the unfortunate object 
of her love upon this elevation, with the strap by which 
she had carried her precious burden, Scarlet Dove hung 
herself to the scaffold and died. Her highest hope was 
to meet the beloved spirit of her Eagle-Eye, in the world 
of spirits.^ 

Many years before the eye of the white man gazed 
on the beautiful landscape around the Falls of Saint 
Anthony, a scene was enacted there of which this is the 
melancholy story : — 

Anpetusapa was the first love of a Dahkotah hunter. 
For a period they dwelt in happiness, and she proved 
herself a true wife. 

^ For this legend we are indebted to Rev. G. H. Pond. 



92 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

" With knife of bone she carved her food, 
Fuel, with axe of stone procured — 
Could fire extract, from flint or wood ; 
To rudest savage life inured. 

"In kettle frail of birchen bark, 

She boiled her food with heated stones ; 
The slippery fish from coverts dark 
She drew with hooked bones." 



But her heart was at length clouded. The husband, 
in accordance with the custom of his nation, introduced 
a second wife within, the teepee, and the first wife's eyes 
began to grow sad, and her form from day to day 
drooped. Her chief joy was to clasp the little boy, 
who was the embodiment of hopes and happiness fled 
for ever. Faithful and unmurmuring, she followed her 
husband on his hunts. One day the band encamped on 
the picturesque shores near the Falls of Saint Anthon}^ 
With tearless eye, and nerved by despair, the first wife, 
with her little son, walked to the rapid waters. Enter- 
ing a canoe, she pushed into the swift current, and the 
chanting of her death dirge arrested the attention of 
her husband and the camp in time to see the canoe on 
the bank, and plunge into the dashing waves. The 
Dahkotahs say, that in the mist of the morning, the 
spirit of an Indian wife, with a child clinging around 
her neck, is seen darting in a canoe through the spray, 
and that the sound of her death-song is heard moaning 
in the winds, and in the roar of the waters. 

On the eastern shore of Lake Pepin, about twelve 
miles from its mouth, there stands a bluff which attracts 
attention by its boldness. It is about four hundred and 
fifty feet in height, the last hundred of which is a bald, 
precipitous crag. It is seen at a distance of miles ; and 



MAIDEN'S ROOK OF THE DAHKOTAHS. 93 

as the steamer approaches, the emergence of passengers 
to the upper deck, and the pointing of the finger of the 
captain, or some one familiar with the country, evince,"^ 
that it is an interesting locahty — it is the Maiden's 
Rock of the Dahkotahs. 

The first version of the story, in connection with this 
bkiflf, differs from those more modern, but is preferable. 

In the days of the great chief Wapashaw, there lived 
at the village of Keoxa, which stood on the site of the 
town which now bears her name, a maiden with a lov- 
ing soul. She was the first-born daughter, and, as is 
always the case in a Dahkotah family, she bore the 
name of Weenonah. A young hunter of the same band, 
was never happier than when he played the flute in her 
hearing. Having thus signified his affection, it was 
with the whole heart reciprocated. The youth begged 
from his friends all that he could, and went to her 
parents, as is the custom, to purchase her for his wife, 
but his proposals were rejected. 

A warrior, who had often been on the war path, 
whose head-dress plainly told the number of scalps he 
had wrenched from Ojibway heads, had also been to the 
parents, and they thought that she would be more 
honoured as an mmate of his teepee. 

Weenonah, however, could not forget her first love ; 
and, though he had been forced away, his absence 
strengthened her affections. Neither the attentions of 
the warrior, nor the threats of parents, nor the persua- 
sions of friends, could make her consent to marry simply 
for position. 

One day the band came to Lake Pepin to fish or 
hunt. The dark green foliage, the velvet sward, the 
beautiful expanse of water, the shady nooks, made it a 



94 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

place to utter the breathings of love. The warrior 
sought her once more, and begged her to accede to her 
parents' wish, and become his wife, but she refused with 
decision. 

While the party were feasting, Weenonah clambered 
to the lofty bluff, and then told to those who were 
below, how crushed she had been by the absence of the 
young hunter, and the cruelty of her friends. Then 
chanting a wild death-song, before the fleetest runner 
could reach the height, she dashed herself down, and 
that form of beauty was in a moment a mass of broken 
limbs and bruised flesh. 

The Dahkotah, as he passes the rock, feels that the 
spot is Wawkawn. 

The Dahkotahs call the St. Croix river, Hogan- 
wanke-kin. The legend is that in the distant past, 
two Dahkotah warriors were travelling on the shores of 
Lake St. Croix, one of whom was under a vow to one 
of his gods not to eat any flesh which had touched 
water. Gnawed by hunger, the two perceived, as they 
supposed, a raccoon, and pursued it to a hollow tree. 
On looking in, the one who could not eat flesh that had 
touched water, saw that the animal was a fish and not 
a quadruped. Turning to his companion, he agreed to 
throw it to the ground if he was not urged to eat. 
Hunger, however, was imperious, and forced him to 
break his vow and partake of the broiled fish. 

After the meal, thirst usurped the place of hunger. 
He called for water to cool his parched tongue, until 
the strength of his companion failed, and he was then 
told to lie down by the lake and drink till his thirst 
was quenched. Complying with the advice, he drank 
and drank, till at last he cried to his friend, " come and 



LANGUAGE AND LEXICON. 95 

look at me." The sight caused the knees of his comrade 
to smite together with fear, for he was fast turning to a 
fish. At length, he stretched himself across the Lake, 
and formed what is called Pike Bar. This, tradition 
says, is the origin of the sand-bar in the Lake, which is 
so conspicuous at low stage of water. 

Having full faith in the legend, to this day they call 
the river, which is part of the boundary between Wis- 
consin and Minnesota, "the place where the fish 
LIES." (Hogan-wanke-kin.) 

The Dahkotahs, from the Minnesota to the plains 
beyond the Missouri, speak essentially the same lan- 
guage. Though difficult to acquire, it is allied to that 
of the Ottoes, Winnebagoes, Toways, and Omahaws.^ 

After ten years' close study by an observing mis- 
sionary, he was obliged to confess that he had not 
mastered it, which admission forms quite a contrast 
to the vaunting statement of Jonathan Carver, who 
wintered in Minnesota in 1767. He remarks: "To 
render my stay as comfortable as possible, I first endea- 
voured to learn their language. This I soon did, to 
make myself perfectly intelligible." 

Hennepin made the first effort to collect a vocabulary 
of the language, while he was a captive on Rum river, 
or Mille Lacs. His description of the attempt is very 
quaint : " Hunger pressed me to commence the forma- 
tion of a vocabulary of their language, learned from 

^ The ancient Arkansas seem to (Minne ska) or White Water." 

have belonged to the Dahkotah Again : " They place the hand upon 

family. A letter published in Kip's the mouth, which is a sign of admi- 

Jesuit Mission, written by a mis- ration among them." Ouakan tague 

sionary at the mouth of the Arkan- they cry out, " it is the Great Spirit." 

sas, in October, 1727, speaks of " a They said probably, Wakan de. This 

river which the Indians call Ni ska is wonderful. 



96 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

the prattle of their children. When once I had learned 
the word Taketchiabein, which means ' How call you 
this ?' I began to be soon able to talk of such things 
as are most familiar. For want of an interpreter this 
difficulty was hard to surmount at first. For example, 
if I had a desire to know what to run was in their 
tongue, I was forced to increase my speed, and actually 
run from one end of the lodge to the other, until they 
understood what I meant and had told me the word, 
which I presently set down in my Dictionary." 

The first printed vocabulary is that appended to 
Carver's Travels, which is exceedingly incorrect, though 
it contains many Dahkotah words. The Smithsonian 
Institution have published, under the patronage of the 
Historical Society of Minnesota, a quarto Grammar and 
Dictionary of this language, which will be gazed upon 
with interest by the " wise men of the East" long after 
the Dahkotah dialect has ceased to be spoken. This 
work is the fruit of eighteen years of anxious toil 
among this people, and is the combined work of the 
members of the Dahkotah Presbytery, edited by the 
Rev. S. R. Riggs, of Lac qui Parle ; and should be pre- 
served in the library of every professional man and 
lover of letters in Minnesota. 

The vocabulary is, of course, meagre, comj)ared with 
that of the civilized European ; for living, as they have 
until of late, far away from any but those of like habits 
and modes of thought, they are defective in many words 
which have their place in the dictionary of a Christian 
people. Accustomed to cut poles from a forest and 
spread buffalo skins thereon, under which they pass the 
night, and then decamp early the next day in quest of 
game or the scalp of an enemy, they have no word which 



DAHKOTAH ALPHABET. 



97 



expresses the comfortable idea of our noble Saxon word 
" home." Still, in the language of a missionary, " it is 
in some of its aspects to be regarded as a noble lan- 
guage, fully adequate to all the felt wants of a nation, 
and capable of being enlarged, cultivated, and enriched, 
by the introduction of foreign stores of thought. Nothing 
can be found anywhere more full and flexible than the 
Dahkotah verb. The affixes, and reduphcations, and 
pronouns, and prepositions, all come in to make it of 
such a stately pile of thought as is to my knowledge 
found nowhere else. A single paradigm presents more 
than a thousand variations." 



THE DAHKOTAH ALPHABET. 



NAME 








NAME. 






A ah, 


sounds 


as a 


in far. 


0, 


sounds 


as in go. 


B be, 


i< 


h 


in but. 


P pe, 


(( 


p in pea. 


C che 


<( 


ch 


in cheat. 


Q qe, 


indescribable. 


D de, 


" 


d 


in deed. 


R re, 


high gutturaL 


E a. 


(( 


a 


in say. 


S se, 


sounds 


as s in sea. 


G ge. 


low gutturaL 




T te, 




t in tea. 


H he, 


sounds 


as h 


in he. 


U 00, 




00 in noon. 


I e, 


(1 


e 


in see. 


W we, 




w in we. 


J je, 


(< 


si 


in hosier. 


X she 


, " 


sh in sheet. 


K ke, 


<< 


k 


in key. 


Y ye. 




y in yeast. 


M me. 


u 


m 


in me. 


Z ze, 




z in zeta. 


N ne, 


<< 


n 


in neat. 









The vowels represent each but one sound. G repre- 
sents a low guttural or gurgling sound. JR represents 
a rough hawking sound, higher than that of g. Besides 
their simple sounds, c, k, p, s, t, and x, have each a close 
compound sound, which cannot be learned except from 
a living teacher. They are printed in italics when they 
represent these sounds, except h, which is never italicised 
for this purpose ; but q is used instead of it. The last- 

7 



98 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

named letter might as well, perhaps, be expunged from 
the Dahkotah alphabet, and k held responsible for the 
performance of this service. When n follows a vowel 
at the end of a syllable, except in contracted words, 
with very few exceptions, it is not full, but sounds like 
n in tinldey ankle. 

It was intended that the Dahkotah orthography should 
be strictly phonetic, and it fails but little of being so. To 
learn the names of the letters is to learn to read it, and 
no English scholar need spend more than a few hours, 
or even a few moments, in learning to read the Dahko- 
tah language.^ 

^ G. H. Pond, in " Tawaxitku Kin." 



CARTIER.— CHAMPLAIN. 99 



CHAPTER IV. 

More than three centuries ago, an enterprising naval 
officer, Jacques Cartier, discovered the mouth of the 
great river of North America, that empties into the 
Atlantic, and whose extreme head waters are in the 
interior of Minnesota, within an hour's walk of a tribu- 
tary of the Mississippi. 

Having erected, in the vicinity of Quebec, a rude fort, 
in 1541, more than a half century before the settlement 
of Jamestown, in Virginia, from that time the river 
Saint Lawrence became known to the bold mariners of 
France, and there was an increasing desire to explore 
its sources. 

In the year 1608, Champlain selected the site in the 
vicinity of Cartier's post as the future capital of New 
France. Burning to plant a colony in the New World, 
he, with great assiduity, explored the country. In 1609 
he ascended a tributary of the Saint Lawrence, till he 
came to the beautiful lake in New York, which, to this 
day, bears his name. 

After several visits to France, in 1615 he is found, 
with unabated zeal, accompanying a band of savages 
to their distant hunting-grounds, and discovering the 
waters of Lake Huron. 



100 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Before the emigrants of the " May Flower" trod on 
New England soil, and while Massachusetts was an 
unknown country to the geographers of Europe, he had 
gained an inkling of the Mediterranean of America, Lake 
Superior. In a map accompanying the journal of his dis- 
coveries, this lake appears as " Grand Lac," and a great 
river is marked flowing from the lake toward the south, 
intended to represent the Mississippi, as described by 
the Lidians, who, from the earliest period, had been 
accustomed, by slight portages, to pass from the waters 
of Lake Superior into those of the " grand" river Avhich 
flows into the Gulf of Mexico. 

About the time that Champlain returned from his 
expedition to the Huron country, there arrived in 
Canada a' youth from France of more than ordinary 
promise, who, by his aptness in the acquisition of the 
Indian dialects, became interpreter and commissary of 
the colony. 

Determined to press beyond others, he, in 1639, 
arrived at the lake of the Winnebagoes, in the present 
state of Wisconsin, which had been described by Cham- 
plain, though erroneously located on the map accom- 
panying his narrative. 

While in this region he concluded a friendly alliance 
with the Indians in the valley of the Fox river. 

Paul le Jeune, in a letter to his superior, Vimont, 
written in the month of September, 1640, alludes to 
Nicolet, and is also the first writer who makes distinct 
mention of the Dahkotahs. Speaking of the tribes on 
Lake Michigan, the father remarks : — 

" Still further on, dwell the Ouinipegou (Winnebago), 
a sedentary people and very numerous. Some French- 
men call them the ' N'ation of Stinkers,' because the 



TRADERS PIONEERS FOR THE PRIESTS. 101 

Algonquin word Ouinipeg signifies stinking water. They 
thus designate the water of the sea, and these people 
call themselves Ouinipegou, because they come from 
the shores of a sea, of which we have no knowledge, 
and therefore we must not call them the nation of 
'' Stinkers,' but the nation of the sea. 

" In the neighbourhood of this nation are the Nadou- 
essi (Dahkotahs), and the Assinipouars (Assiniboines). 
*****! will say, by the way, that the Sieur 
Nicolet, interpreter of the Algonquin and Huron lan- 
guages for ' Messieurs de la Nouvelle France,' has given 
me the names of these nations, whom he has visited, 
for the most part, in their own countries." 

Two years elapse, and, in 1641, Jogues and Raym- 
bault, of the " Society of Jesus," after a journe}^ of 
seventeen da^^s, in frail barks, over tempestuous waters, 
arrive at the barrier of rocks at the entrance of Lake 
Superior ; and then, at Sault St. Marie, met the Potto- 
wattomies flying from the Dahkotahs, and were told 
that the latter lived to the west of the Falls, about 
eighteen days' journey, the first nine across the lake, 
the other up a river which leads inland, referring, pro- 
bably, to the stream which interlocks with the head 
waters of the river Saint Croix. 

We would not detract from the zeal of the man of 
God, but it is a fact that those in the service of mam- 
mon have ever outrun those in the service of Christ. 
The "insacra fames auri," the unholy thirst for gold, 
has always made the trader the pioneer of the mis- 
j.qonary in savage lands. 

In a communication made as early as 1654, it was 
stated that it was only nine days' journey from the 
Lake of the Winnebago (Green Bay) to the sea that 



102 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

separates America from China; and, that, if a person 
could be found who would send thirty Frenchmen into 
that country, they would obtain the finest peltries and 
amass wealth. 

This year two adventurous Frenchmen went to seek 
their fortunes in the region west of Lake Michigan; 
and, in August, 1656, with a flotilla of canoes, laden 
with treasures, and two hundred and fifty Ojibways, 
they arrived at Quebec, and interested "voyageurs" 
with a recital of their hair-breadth escapes — merchants 
with their packs of valuable furs, and ecclesiastics with 
narrations of the miserable condition of immortal souls, 
and of the numerous villages of the " Nadouesiouack" 
(Dahkotahs) and other tribes. 

Thirty young Frenchmen, excited by the reports, 
equipped themselves to trade with the lodges in the 
distant wilderness ; and, two Fathers, Leonard Garreau 
and Gabriel Dreuilletes, were summoned by their Supe- 
rior to return with the brigade, and were rejoiced to 
find themselves chosen to be the first to carry the name 
of Jesus Christ into a country alike replete with tribu- 
lation, darkness, and death. 

The latter missionary had been a visiter to the house 
of the Puritan minister, Eliot, in the vicinity of Boston, 
and they had frequently taken sweet counsel together in 
relation to the amelioration of the condition of the abo- 
rigines. 

This expedition failed to reach its destination, owing 
to a murderous attack of the Iroquois, in which Gar- 
reau was killed, and the Ojibways so alarmed that they 
refused to receive the surviving " black robe." 

Li the year 1659 two traders travelled extensively 
among the distant tribes. Six days' journey south-west 



GROSELLIER'S JOURNEY TO HUDSON BAY, BY LAND. 103 

of La Pointe, now Bayfield, Wisconsin, they found vil- 
lages of Hurons, who, retreating across rocky ridges, 
over deep streams, wide lakes, and dense thickets, had 
reached the shores of the Mississippi, and found a shelter 
among the Dahkotahs from the fierce onslaught of the 
Iroquois. In the vicinity of the Hurons they saw Dah- 
kotah settlements, "in five of which were counted all 
of five thousand men." They noticed women with the 
tips of their noses cut oflf, and heads partly scalped, and 
were informed that this was the penalty inflicted upon 
adulteresses. 

They also heard of " another warlike nation who, with 
their bows and arrows, have rendered themselves as 
formidable to the upper Algonquins as the Iroquois have 
to the lower. They bear the name of Poualak (Assine- 
boine), that is to say, the warriors." Continues the relar 
tion : — " As wood is scarce and very small with them, 
nature has taught them to burn stones in place of it, 
and to cover their wigwams with skins. Some of the 
most industrious among them have built mud cabins 
nearly in the same manner that swallows build their 
nests ; nor Avould they sleep less sweetly beneath these 
skins, or under this clay, than the great ones of earth 
beneath their golden canopies, was it not for the fear of 
the Iroquois, who come here in search of them from a 
distance of five or six hundred leagues." 

On the early French maps of Lake Superior, a tribu- 
tary from Minnesota is called the River Grosellier.^ It 



^ Grosellier was a native of Ton- Quebec. Returning by Lake Supe- 

raine, and married Helen, daughter rior, he ofFered to carry French ships 

of Abraham Martin, King's Pilot, to Hudson's Bay. Rejected by the 

who has left his name to the cele- court, he crossed over to England, 

brated plains of Abraham, near where his offers were accepted. With 



104 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

appears' to have been named after a French pilot who, 
about this time, roamed into the Assiniboine country, in 
the region of Lake Winnepeg, and was conducted by 
them to the shores of Hudson's Bay. 

During the summer of 1660 the traders of the far 
West returned to Quebec with sixty canoes, manned by 
Algonquins, and laden with fox, beaver, and bufialo skins. 
The narrative of these men increased the existing enthu- 
siasm of the Jesuits, and the Superior at Quebec had a 
zeal which " caused him to wish that he might be an 
angel of glad tidings to the far nations; and, at the 
expense of a thousand lives, to go and search in the 
depths of the forest the lost sheep for whose welfare he 
had crossed the sea." 

The murder of Garreau, four years before, did not 
intimidate, but his blood increased the courage of the 
church, and Rene Menard was the one selected to be 
the cross-bearer to the barbarians in the regions round 
about Lake Superior. 

His hair whitened by age, his mind ripened by long 
experience, and acquainted with the peculiarities of 
Indian character, he seemed the man for the mission. 

The night before he started, the eyes of the venerable 
priest were not closed. He thought much of his friends, 
and, knowing that he was about to go into a land of 
barbarians, two hours after midnight he penned a letter, 

Raddlsson, another Frenchmen, he ^ My Reverend Father— The Peace 

piloted an English vessel, command- of Christ be with tou : 

ed by Captain Gillam, a Yankee, to I write to you probably the last 

the River Nemiscau, on the east side word, which I hope will be the seal 

of James Bay, where Fort Rupert of our friendship until eternity, 

w.as built. See O'Callaghan's note, Love whom the Lord Jesus did not 

vol. ix. p. 797, Paris Doc. : Col. His- disdain to love, though the greatest 

tory of New York. of sinners, for he loves whom he 



MENARD AT LAKE SUPERIOR. 105 

touching in its simplicity, and which will be embalmed 
in the literature of the future dwellers on the shores of 
Lake Superior. 

Early on the morning of the 28th of August, 1660, 
he, in company with eight Frenchmen, departed with 
the Ottawa convoy from " Three Eivers." After much 
ridicule from the wild companions of his voyage, he 
arrived at a bay on Lake Superior, on the 15th of 
October, St. Theresa's day, on which account he so 
designated the sheet of water. 

During the following winter they remained at this 
point. Their suppl}^ of provisions being exhausted, 
they nearly starved. " At times they scraped up a mess 
of the ' tripe de roche,' which slightly thickened their 
water, foaming upon it a kind of foam or slime, similar 
to that of snails, and which served rather to nourish 
their imagination than their bodies :" at other times they 

loads with his cross. Let your have been a little surprised, not be- 

friendship, my good father, be use- ing able to provide ourselves with 

ful to me by the desirable fruits of vestments and other things ; but he 

your daily sacrifice. In three or who feeds the little birds and clothes 

four months, you may remember me the lilies of the fields, will take care 

at the memento for the dead, on ac- of his servants ; and though it should 

count of my old age, my weak con- happen we should die with want, we 

stitution, and the hardships I lay would esteem ourselves happy. I 

under amongst these tribes. Never- am loaded with afiairs. What I can 

theless, I am in peace, for I have do is to recommend our journey to 

not been led to this mission by any your daily sacrifices, and to embrace 

temporal motive, but I think it was you with the same sentiments of 

by the voice of God. I was afraid, heart, as I hope to do in eternity, 

by not coming here, to resist the My reverend father, your most 

grace of God. Eternal remorse would humble and afi"ectionate servant in 

have tormented me, had I not come Jesus Christ, 

when I had the opportunity. We R. Menard. 

From the Three Rivers, this "j 
27th August, 2 o'clock >- 
after midnight, 1660. J 



106 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

subsisted on pounded fish-bones and acorns. When 
the vernal breezes began to blow, ducks, geese, and 
wild pigeons made their appearance, and their bodies 
strengthened. 

The refugee Hurons, at La Pointe, hearing that a 
" black gown" was on the shores of the lake, invited 
him to visit them. 

Menard appointed three young Frenchmen to act 
as pioneers, and reconnoitre the country and make 
presents. On their journey their canoe was stolen, 
and after many difficulties they returned. Their 
report was discouraging, but did not deter the aged 
enthusiast. His last written sentences, penned in July, 
1661, are : — 

" I hear every day four populous nations spoken of, 
that are distant from here about two or three hundred 
leagues. I expect to die on my way to them ; but as I 
am so far advanced, and in health, I shall do all that is 
possible to reach them. The route, most of the way, 
lies across swamps, through which it is necessary to feel 
your way in passing, and to be in danger every moment 
of sinking too deep to extricate yourself; provisions 
which can only be obtained by carrying them with you, 
and the mosquitoes, whose numbers are frightful, are 
the three great obstacles which render it difficult for me 
to obtain a companion." 

Some Hurons having come to treat with the Ojibways, 
agreed to act as guides. Selecting John Guerm, a faith- 
ful man, as his companion, he started, with some dried 
fish and smoked meat for provisions. The Indians, full 
of caprice, soon moved off, and left the priest and his 
friend in an unknown country. Bruised in limb, and 
faint in body, on the 10 th of August, Menard, while 



DISAPPEARANCE OF MENARD. 107 

following his companion, lost himself by mistaking the 
trail. 

The agony of Guerin is great when he looks behind 
and beholds not the aged traveller. He calls at the top 
of his voice, but he only hears the echo. He fires his 
gun repeatedly, to lead him to the right path ; at last 
he wanders to a Huron village, and, by gestures and 
tears, and the promise of reward, induced a youth to go 
in search. He soon returned, weary; and from that 
day there have been no traces of his body. 

A century ago, the report was current in Canada, 
that, some years after his disappearance, his robe and 
prayer book were found in a Dahkotah lodge, and were 
looked upon as " wawkawn" or supernatural. 

In the summer of 1663 the mournful intelligence of 
the loss of Menard reached Quebec, and one was soon 
found to be his successor — Father Claude Allouez, who 
anxiously awaited the means of conveyance to his scene 
of labour. In the year 1665 a hundred canoes, laden 
with Indians and peltries, arrived at Montreal from 
Lake Superior. A Frenchman, who accompanied them, 
reported that the Outaouaks (Ojibways) were attacked 
on one side by the Iroquois, and on the other by the 
Nadouessioux (Dahkotahs), a warlike people, who 
carry on cruel wars with nations still more distant. 
Allouez rejoiced at the sight of the frail barks, and 
greeted the besmeared savages as if they were visitants 
from a better land. In a letter written at the time, his 
full heart thus speaks : " At last it has pleased God to 
send us the angels of the Upper Algonquins to conduct 
us to their country." 

On the 8th of August, 1665, with six Frenchmen 



108 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

and four hundred savages, returning from their trading 
expedition, he embarked. 

Having made a portage at Sault St. Marie, on the 2d 
of September their birch canoes ghded on the waters of 
Lake Superior. On the 1st of October they arrived at 
the Chegoimegon, a beautiful bay (Bayfield, Wisconsin), 
where were two large villages, one of which was occupied 
by the Hurons, who had been driven from the Dahkotah 
country under the following circumstances : — 

Having claimed superiority, on account of the pos- 
session of fire-arms, they taunted the Dahkotahs, avIio 
had received them when they were outcasts and flying 
from the Iroquois, on account of their simplicity. At 
last, provoked beyond endurance, they decoyed a num- 
ber of Hurons into a wild rice marsh, and killed many 
with their primitive, but not to be despised, stone-tipped 
arrows, and drove the remnant to Chegoimegon. 

The second village was composed of several bands of 
Ojibways, whose ancestors had, a long time before, lived 
east of Lake Michigan, but had been driven westward 
by the Iroquois. 

This point was a centre of trade for many nations. 
Even the Illinois came here to fish and exchange com- 
modities. 

Allouez, when he landed at La Pointe, as the French 
named the place, in consequence of a tongue-like pro- 
jection of land, found a scene of great confusion. In 
the language of Bancroft, " It was at a moment when 
the young warriors were bent on a strife with the war- 
like Sioux. A grand council of ten or twelve neigh- 
bouring nations was held to wrest the hatchet from the 
hands of the rash braves, and Allouez was admitted to 
an audience before the vast assembly. In the name of 



ALLOUEZ AT LA POINTE 109 

Louis XIV. and his viceroy, he commanded peace, and 
offered commerce and aUiance against the Iroquois — 
the soldiers of France would smooth the path between 
the Chippewas and Quebec — would brush the pirate 
canoes from the rivers — would leave to the Five Nations 
no choice, but between tranquillity and destruction. On 
the shore of the bay to which the abundant fisheries at- 
tracted crowds, a chapel soon rose, and the mission of the 
Holy Spirit was founded. There admiring throngs, who 
had never seen an European, came to gaze on the white 
man, and on the pictures which he displayed of the 
realms of hell, and of the last judgment. There a 
choir of Chippewas were taught to chant the pater and 
the ave. * * * * 'j'jjg ^acs and Foxes travelled 
on foot from their country, which abounded in deer, 
beaver, and buffalo. The Illinois also, a hospitable 
race, unaccustomed to canoes, having no weapon but 
the bow and arrow, came to rehearse their sorrows. 
******* Curiosity was roused by their 
tale of the noble river on which they dwelt, and which 
flowed toward the south. Then, too, at the very extre- 
mity of the lake, the missionary met the wild and 
impassioned Sioux, who dwelt to the west of Lake 
Superior, in a land of prairies, with wild rice for food, 
and skins of beasts instead of bark for roofs to their 
cabins, on the bank of the great river, of which Allouez 
reported the name to be Messipi." 

While on an excursion to Lake Alempigon (Saint 
Anne), he met, at Fond du Lac, in Minnesota, some 
Dahkotah warriors ; and, in describing them, he is the 
first to give the name of the great river of which the 
Indians had told so many wonderful stories. 



110 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

In the relations of the mission of the Holy Spirit, 
the following remarks are made of the Dahkotahs : — 

" This is a tribe that dwells to the west of this (Fond 
du Lac), toward the great river called Messipi. They 
are forty or fifty leagues from here, in a country of 
prairies, abounding in all kinds of game. They have 
fields in which they do not sow Indian corn, but only 
tobacco. Providence has provided them with a species 
of marsh rice, which, toward the end of summer, they 
go to collect in certain small lakes that are covered with 
it. They know how to prepare it so well that it is 
quite agreeable to the taste and nutritive. They pre- 
sented me with some when I was at the extremity of 
Lake Tracy (Superior), where I saw them. They do 
not use the gun, but only the bow and arrow, which 
they use with great dexterity. Their cabins are not 
covered with bark, but with deerskins well dried, and 
stitched together so well that the cold does not enter. 
These people are, above all other, savage and warhke. 
In our presence they seemed abashed, and were motion- 
less as statues. They speak a language entirely unknown 
to us, and the savages about here do not understand 
them." 

After two years passed among the Algonquins at La 
Pointe and vicinity, AUouez was convinced that his 
mission would not prosper, unless he had some assist- 
ance. He determined to go in person to Quebec, and 
implore labourers for the field. Arriving there on the 
3d day of August, 1667, he w^orked night and day ; and, 
after two days, the bow of his canoe was again turned 
towards the far West. His party consisted at first of 
Father Louis Nicholas, and another Jesuit, W'ith four 
labourers; but, when they came to the canoes, tho 



MARQUETTE'S DESCRIPTION OF DAHKOTAHS. ill 

whimsical savages only allowed Allouez, Nicholas, and 
one of their men, to enter. But, notwithstanding the 
help obtained, the savage hearts could not be subdued ; 
and, " weary of their obstinate unbelief," he resolved to 
leave La Pointe. On the 13th of September, 1669, the 
renowned Marquette took his place ; and, writing to his 
Superior, describes the Dahkotahs in these words : — 

" The Nadouessi are the Iroquois of this country, be- 
yond La Pointe, but less faithless, and never attack till 
attacked. 

" They lie south-west of the mission of the Holy 
Spirit, and we have not yet visited them, having con- 
fined ourselves to the conversion of the Ottawas. 

" Their language is entirely different from the Huron 
and Algonquin; they have many villages, but are 
widely scattered; they have very extraordinary cus- 
toms ; they principally use the calumet ; they do not 
speak at great feasts, and when a stranger arrives give 
him to eat of a wooden fork, as we would a child. 

" All the lake tribes make war on them, but with 
small success. They have false oats (wild rice), use 
little canoes, and keep their word strictly. I sent 
them a present by an interpreter, to tell them to recog- 
nise the Frenchman everywhere, and not to kill him or 
the Indians in his company ; that the black gown wishes 
to pass to the country of the Assinipouars (Assineboines), 
and to that of the Kihstinaux (Cnistineaux) ; that he 
was already with the Outagamis (Foxes), and that I 
was going this fall to the Ilhnois, to whom they should 
leave a free passage. 

" They agreed ; but as for my present waited till all 
came from the chase, promising to come to La Pointe 



112 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

in the fall, to hold a council with the Illinois and speak 
with me. Would that all these nations loved God as 
they feared the French." 

The relations of the Jesuits for 1670-71, allude to 
the Dahkotahs, and their attack on the Ilurons and 
Ojibways of La Pointe : — 

" There are certain people, called Nadouessi, dreaded 
by their neighbours, and although they only use the 
bow and arrow, they use it with so much skill and so 
much dexterity that, in a moment, they fill the air. In 
the Parthian mode, they turn their heads in flight, and 
discharge their arrows so rapidly, that they are no less 
to be feared in their retreat than in their attack. 

" They dwell on the shores of, and around the great 
river, Messipi, of which we shall speak. They number 
no less than fifteen populous towns, and yet they know 
not how to cultivate the earth by seeding it, contenting 
themselves with a species of marsh rye, which we call 
wild oats. 

" For sixty leagues, from the extremity of the upper 
lakes towards sunset, and, as it were, in the centre of 
the western nations, they have all united their force, by 
a general league, which has been made against them, 
as against a common enemy. 

" They speak a peculiar language, entirely distinct 
from that of the Algonquins and Hurons, whom they 
generally surpass in generosity, since they often content 
themselves with the glory of having obtained the vic- 
tory, and freely release the prisoners they have taken 
in battle, 

"Our Outaouacs and Hurons, of the Point of the 
Holy Ghost, had, to the present time, kept up a kind 



LA POINTE MISSION ABANDONED.— OJIBWAYS DIVIDED. 113 

of peace with them, but affairs having become embroiled 
during last winter, and some murders having been com- 
mitted on both sides, our savages had reason to appre- 
hend that the storm w^ould soon burst upon them, and 
judged that it was safer for them to leave the place, 
which in fact they did in the spring." 

La Pointe being abandoned, the nearest French set- 
tlement is Sault St. Marie, at the foot of the lake. In 
the year 1674 a party of Dahkotahs arrived there to 
make an alliance with the French, having been defeated 
in recent engagements with their foes. They visited 
the mission-house of Father Dreuilletes, where some of 
their nation were under religious instruction; and a 
council of the neighbouring tribes was called to deHbe- 
rate on the proposed peace. A Cree Indian insulted 
a Dahkotah chief by brandishing his knife in his face. 
Fired at the indignity, he drew his own stone knife 
from his belt, and shouted the war cry. A fierce con- 
flict now took place, in which the ten Dahkotah envoys 
were scalped and the mission-house burned. 

The Saulteurs^ or Ojibways divided into two bands, 
not far from this period. One remained at the Falls 
of Saint Mary, and subsisted on the delicious white fish, 
the other retired towards the extremity of Lake Supe- 
rior, and settled at two places, making an alliance with 
the Dahkotahs, who were anxious for French goods, 
which they strengthened by intermarriages. The Dah- 
kotahs, who had their villages near the Mississippi, 

^ Name applied because they lived called them Pauotig-oueieuhak, In- 

at Sault St. Marie. The Dahkotahs habitants of the Falls, or Pahoui- 

call them Ha-ha-twawns, Dweller at tingdachirini, Men of the Shallow 

the Falls. The Algonquin tribes Cataract. 
8 



114 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

about the forty-sixth degree of latitude, shared their 
country with their new allies. During the winter, the 
Ojibways hunted, and in the spring they returned to 
the shores of Lake Superior. While in the land of the 
Dahkotahs, they took care not to assist them in their 
wars, lest they should be embroiled with surrounding 

nations.^ 

^ Perrot in La Potherie. 



THE FUR TRADE. 115 



CHAPTER V. 

The trade in furs has produced a class of men of 
marked peculiarities. Under the French dominion, 
military officers, and the descendants of a decayed 
nobiUty, were Hcensed, by authority, to trade in a 
jDarticular district. These men were well educated, 
pohshed in their manners, and fond of control. Living 
in a savage land, surrounded by a few dependents, they 
acted as monarchs of all they surveyed. The freedom 
from the restraints of civiUzed life, and the adulation 
received from the barbarians, who are so easily im- 
pressed by tinsel and glare, had a wonderful fascina- 
tion, so that a " lodge in some vast wilderness" became 
preferable to the drawing-rooms of ancient France, and 
the gay assemblies of Quebec. 

These licensed officers did not harass themselves with 
the minutiae of the Indian trade. In their employ were 
a few clerks, chiefly natives of Canada, who had re- 
ceived the rudiments of an education. Upon these 
devolved the task of conducting European articles of 
merchandise, to the tribes on the various watercourses 
that radiated from the centre of trade, with whom they 
wintered, and then returned in the spring or summer 
with the peltries that had been obtained in exchange 
for powder, lead, rum, and tobacco. 



116 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

i 

Under (;ach clerk were a few men of no cultivation, 
the children of poverty or shame, who from their 
earliest youth had led a roving life, and who acted as 
canoe men, hewers of wood, and drawers of water. 

Mercurial in temperament, and with no sense of 
responsibility, they were a "jolly set" of fellows, in 
their habits approximating to the savage, rather than 
the European. 

The labours of the day finished, they danced around 
the camp-fire to the sound of the viol, or they purchased 
the virtue of some Indian maiden, and engaged in 
debauch as disgusting as that of sailors sojourning in 
the isles of the South Sea, or 

" Worn with the long clay's march, and the chase 

Of the deer, and the bison, 
Stretched themselves on the ground and slept 

Where the quivering fire-light 
Flashed on their swarthy cheeks, and their 

Forms wrapped up in their blankets."^ 

Inured to toil, they arose in the morning " when it 
was yet dark," and pushing the prow of their light 
canoes into the water, swiftly they glided away " like 
the shade of a cloud on the prairie," and did not break 
fast until the sun had been above the horizon for several 
hours. 

Halting for a short period they partook of their coarse 
fare, and sang their rude songs ; then re-embarking, 
they pursued their course to the land of the beaver and 
the buftalo, until the " shades of night began to fall." 

From early youth accustomed to descend rapids, and 
ascend lofty bluffs with heavy burdens, they guided 

* Evangeline. 



HABITS OF THE VOYAGEURS. 117 

their canoes, and carried tlieir packs through, places 
that would have been impassable to any but the " cou- 
reurs des bois."^ When old age relaxed their sinew}' 
joints/ they returned to Mackinaw, or some other 
entrepot, and with an Indian woman obtained, after 
the manner of the country, to mend their moccasins 
and hoe their gardens, passed the remainder of life in 
whiffing the pipe and recounting hair-breadth escapes. 

The " bois brule"^ offspring naturally became enam- 
oured with the rover's life, a retrospect of which infused 
fire into the dim eyes of the old man, and as soon as 
employment could be obtained they left the homestead 
to follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. 

The voyageur seldom remains in a settled country. 
As civilization advances he feels cramped and uncom- 
fortable, and follows the Indian in his retreat. On the 
confines of Minnesota are many of this class, whose 
fathers, a generation ago, dwelt at La Pointe, Green 
Bay, or Prairie du Chien. Before France had taken 
formal possession of the region of the Lakes, hundreds 
of "coureurs des bois" had ventured into the distant 
North- West. The absence of so many from regular 
pursuits, was supposed to be disastrous to the interests 
of the colony, and measures were taken by the French 
governme^it to compel them to return, which resulted 
in only partial success. 

Du Chesneau, Intendant of Canada, was worried by 
the lawlessness of the rovers, and writes to the Minister 
of Marine^ and Colonies of France : — 

^ So called because they wandered wood," applied to half-breeds be- 
through the woods, to obtain peltries cause of their dark complexions, 
from the savages. ^ Nov. 10, 1679, Paris Documents, 

^ This term, meaning "burnt 11. Col. Hist. N. Y. vol. ix. p. 133. 



] 18 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

" Be pleased to bear in mind, my lord, that there was 
a general complaint, the year previous to my arrival in 
this country, that the great quantity of people who 
went to trade for peltries to the Indian country, ruined 
the colony, because those who alone could improve it, 
being young and strong for work, abandoned their 
wives and children, the cultivation of lands, and rear- 
ing of cattle ; that they became dissipated ; that their 
absence gave rise to licentiousness among their wives, 
as has often been the case, and is still of daily occur- 
rence; that they accustomed themselves to a loafing 
and vagabond life, which it was beyond their power to 
quit ; that they derived Httle benefit from their labours, 
because they were induced to waste in drunkenness and 
fine clothes the little they earned, which was very 
trifling, those who gave them licenses having the larger 
part, besides the price of the goods, which they sold 
them very dear, and that the Indians would no longer 
bring them peltries in such abundance to sell to the 
honest people, if so great a number of young men went 
in search of them to those very barbarians, who despised 
us on account of the great cupidity we manifested." 

At one period, three-fourths of the revenue of Canada 
was derived from the fur trade. 

Only twenty-five licenses were granted each year; 
and when a " poor gentleman" or " old ofiicer" did not 
wish to go West, he disposed of his permit, which was 
valued at six hundred crowns, to the merchants of 
Quebec or Montreal. Each license allowed the pos- 
sessor to send two canoes into the Indian country. Six 
" voyageurs" were employed for the canoes, and were 
furnished with goods valued at one thousand crowns, 
with an addition of fifteen per cent. The losses and 



PROFITS OF FUR TRADE.— PERROT. 119 

risk were great, but when a venture was successful tlie 
profits were enormous. 

The two canoes sometimes brought to Montreal 
beautiful furs valued at eight thousand crowns. Tho 
merchants received from the "coureurs des bois" six 
hundred crowns for the license, one thousand for the 
goods, and forty per cent, on the balance of sales ; the 
residue was divided among the "coureurs," giving to 
each five or six hundred crowns, which was disposed of 
as quickly, and much in the same way, as mariners dis- 
charged from a ship of war spend their wages. 

During the latter part of the seventeenth century, 
the name of Nicholas Perrot was familiar, not only to 
the men of business, and officers of government at 
Montreal and Quebec, but around the council fires of 
the Hurons, Ottawas, Otchagras, Ojibways, Pottawota- 
mies, Miamies, and Dahkotahs. A native of Canada, 
accustomed from childhood to the excitement and in- 
cidents of border life, he was to a certain extent pre- 
pared for the wild scenes witnessed in after days. 

If the name of Joliet is worthy of preservation, the 
citizens of the North- West ought not to be willing to let 
the name of that man die, who was the first of whom 
we have any account that erected a trading post on the 
upper Mississippi. 

Perrot was a man of good family, and in his youth 
applied himself to study, and, being for a time in the 
service of the Jesuits, became familiar with the customs 
and languages of most of the tribes upon the borders of 
our lakes. 

Some years before La Salle had launched the " Grifiin" 
on Lake Erie, and commenced his career of discovery, 
Perrot, at the request of the authorities in Canada, who 



120 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

looked upon him as a man of great tact, visited the 
various nations of the North- West, and invited them to 
a grand council at Sault St. Marie, for the purpose of 
making a treaty with France. Of mercurial temperor 
ment, he performed the journey with great speed, going 
as far south as Chicago, the site of the present city. 

On the 3d of September, 1670, Talon, the Intendant 
of Canada, ordered Sieur de St. Lusson to proceed to 
the "countries of the Outaouais, Nez Perces, Illinois, 
and other nations discovered" near Lake Superior or 
the Fresh Sea, and search for mines, particularly cop- 
per. He was also delegated to take possession of all 
the countries through which he passed, planting the 
cross and the arms of France. 

In May, 1671, there was seen at the Falls of St. 
Mary, what has been of late, a frequent occurrence. 
Here was the first convocation of civilized men, with 
the aborigines of the North- West, for the formation of 
a compact, for the purposes of trade and mutual assist- 
ance.^ 

It was not only the custom but policy of the court 
of France to make a great display upon such an occa- 
sion. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that we 
should see the ecclesiastic , and mihtary officers, sur- 
rounded "with all of the ]Domp and circumstance" 
peculiar to their profession in that age of extravagance 
in externals. 

Allouez, the first ecclesiastic who saw the Dahkotahs 

* The Europeans present, besides a soldier of the castle of Quebec ; 

De Lusson and Perrot, were the Je- Dennis Masse ; Chavigny ; Chevriot- 

suits, Andr6, Dreuillotes, Allouez, tiere ; Lagillier ; MayserS ; Dupuis ; 

and Dablon ; also Joliet, the ex- Bidaud Joniel ; Po'-^icet ; Du Prat : 

plorer of the Mississippi ; Mogras, Vital Oriol ; Guillanme. 
of Three Rivers, Canada ; Touppine, 



TAKING POSSESSION OF THE NORTH-WEST. 121 

face to face, and the founder of the mission among the 
Ojibways at La Pointe, opened council by detailing to 
the painted, grotesque assemblage, enveloped in the 
robes of the beaver and buffalo, the great power of his 
monarch who lived beyond the seas. 

Two holes were then dug, in one of which was 
planted a cedar column, and in the other a cross of the 
same material. After this the European portion of the 
assemblage chanted the hymn which was so often heard 
in the olden time from Lake Superior to Lake Pont- 
chartrain : — 

"Vexilla regis prodeunt 
. Fulget crucis mysterium, 

' Qua vita mortem pertulit, 

Et morte, vitam pertulit." 

The arms of France, probably engraved on leaden 
plates, were then attached to both column and cross, 
and again the whole company sang together the " Exau- 
diat," of the Roman Catholic service, the same as the 
20th Psalm, of the King James' version of the Bible. 
The delegates from the different tribes having signified 
their approval of what Perrot had interpreted of the 
speech of the French Envoy, St. Lusson, there was a 
grand discharge of musketry, and the chanting of the 
noble " Te Deum Laudamus." 

After this alliance was concluded, Perrot, in a spirit 
of enterprise, opened the trade with some of the more 
remote tribes. 

The first trading posts on Lake Superior, beyond 
Sault St. Marie, were built of pine logs, by Daniel 
Greysolon du Luth, a native of Lyons, at Kamanisti- 
goya, the entrance of Pigeon river, Minnesota. On the 



122 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

1st of September, 1678, he left Quebec, to explore the 
country of the Dahkotahs and Assineboines. 

The next year, on the 2d of July, he caused the 
king's arms to be planted " in the great village of the 
Nadouessioux (Dahkotahs), called Kathio, where no 
Frenchman had ever been, also at Songaskicons, and 
Houetbatons,' one hundred and twenty leagues distant 
from the former," 

On the 15th of September, he met the Assineboines 
and other nations, at the head of Lake Superior, for the 
purpose of settling their dijfficulties with the Dahkotahs, 
and was successful. 

On this tour he visited Mille Lac, which he called 
Lake Buade, the family name of Frontenac, governor of 
Canada.^ 

Du Chesneau, the intendant of Canada, appears to 
have been hostile to Du Luth, and wrote to Seignelay, 
Minister of the Colonies, that he and Governor Fronte- 
nac were in correspondence, and enriching themselves 
by the fur trade. He also intimated that the governor 
clandestinely encouraged Du Luth to sell his peltries 
to the English. From the tone of the correspondence, 
Du Chesneau was excitable and prejudiced.^ 

^ The Chongasketons and Ouade- vernor, having returned this year, 

batons of the early French maps, and I being advised that he had 

The former were the same as the traded in two days, one hundred and 

Sissetoans, fifty beaver robes in a single village 

^ Coronellis' map, corrected by of this tribe, amounting in all to 

Tillemon, published at Paris, 1688. nearly nine hundred beavers, which 

^ " The man named La Taupine, is a matter of public notoriety, and 

a famous ' coureur de bois,' who that he left with Du Luth, two men, 

set out in the month of September whom he had with him, considered 

of lasu 7°ar, 1678, to go to the Ou- myself bound to have him arrested 

tawacs, with goods, and who has and to question him, but having pre- 

always been interested with the go- sented a license from the governor 



DU LUTH'S UNCLE. 



123 



He attempted to imprison several of Du Luth's friends, 
among others his uncle, named Patron, who was a mer- 
chant, and his agent for the sale of furs. 

The account that Perrot gave of his explorations be- 
yond Lake Michigan, attracted the attention of La Salle, 
and induced him to project those enterprises which have 



given distinction to his name. 



permitting him and his comrades, 
Lamonde, and Dupuy, to repair to 
the Outawac nation to execute his 
secret orders, I had him set at li- 
berty. Immediately on his going 
out, Sieur Prevost, Town-Mayor of 
Quebec, came at the head of some 
soldiers, to force the prison, -with 
vrritten orders in these terms from 
the governor : — 

" ' Count de Frontenac, Councillor 
of the King in his Council, Governor 



and Lieutenant-General of His Ma- 
jesty in New France : 

"Sieur Prevost, Mayor of Quebec, 
is ordered, in case the Intendant ar- 
rest Pierre Moreau, alias La Tau- 
pine, whom we have sent to Quebec 
as bearer of despatches, upon pre- 
text of his having been in the bush, 
to set him forthwith at liberty, and, 
employ every means for this purpose 
at his peril. Done at Montreal, 5th 
September, 1679. 

Frontenac' " 



124 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The same autumn that Du Luth left Montreal for 
the region west of Lake Superior, La Salle was at Fort 
Frontenac, the modern Kingston, busily engaged in 
maturing his plans for an occupation of the Mississippi 
valley. During the winter and the following spring his 
employees were occupied in building a vessel to navi- 
gate the lakes. Among those who were to accompany 
him on the voyage was Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan 
priest, of the Recollect order. 

The first European to explore the Mississippi above 
the mouth of the Wisconsin; the first to name and 
describe the Falls of Saint Anthony ; the first to pre- 
sent an engraving of the Falls of Niagara to the literary 
world ; the Minnesotian mil desire to know something 
of the antecedents and subsequent life of this individual. 

The account of Hennepin's early life is chiefly ob- 
tained from the introduction to the Amsterdam edition 
of his book of travels. He was born in Ath, an inland 
town of the Netherlands. From boyhood he longed 
to visit foreign countries, and it is not to be wondered 
at that he assumed the priestly office, for next to the 
army, it was the road, in that age, to distinction. For 
several years he led quite a wandering life. A member 



HENNEPIN'S FONDNESS OF ADVENTURE. 125 

of the Recollect branch of the Franciscans, at one time 
he is on a begging expedition to some of the towns on 
the sea coast. In a few months he occupies the post of 
chaplain at an hospital, where he shrives the dying and 
administers extreme unction. From the quiet of the hos- 
pital he proceeds to the camp, and is present at the battle 
of SenefFe, which occurred in the year 1674. 

His whole mind, from the time that he became a 
priest, appears to have been on " things seen and tem- 
poral," rather than on those that are "unseen and 
eternal." While on duty at some of the ports on the 
Straits of Dover, he exhibited the characteristic of an 
ancient Athenian more than that of a professed successor 
of the Apostles. He sought out the society of strangers 
" who spent their time in nothing else but either to tell 
or to hear some new thing." With perfect nonchalance 
he confesses that notwithstanding the nauseating fumes 
of tobacco, he used to slip behind the doors of sailors' 
taverns, and spend days, without regard to the loss of 
his meals, listening to the adventures and hair-breadth 
escapes of the mariners in lands beyond the sea. 

In the year 1676 he received a welcome order from 
his Superior, requiring him to embark for Canada. Un- 
accustomed to the world, and arbitrary in his disposi- 
tion, he rendered the cabin of the ship in which he 
sailed anything but heavenly. As in modern days, the 
passengers in a vessel to the new world were composed 
of heterogeneous materials. There were young women 
going out in search for brothers or husbands, ecclesias- 
tics, and those engaged in the then new, but profitable, 
commerce in furs. One of his fellow passengers was the 
talented and enterprising, though unfortunate. La Salle, 
with whom he afterwards associated. K he is to be 



126 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

credited, his intercourse with La Salle was not very 
pleasant on ship-board. The young women, tired of 
being cooped up in the narrow accommodations of the 
ship, when the evening was fair sought the deck, and 
engaged in the rude dances of the French peasantry of 
that age. Hennepin, feeling that it was improper, 
began to assume the air of the priest, and forbade the 
sport. La Salle, feeling that his interference was un- 
called for, called him a pedant, and took the side of the 
girls, and during the voyage there were stormy discus- 
sions. 

Good humour appears to have been restored when 
they left the ship, for Hennepin would otherwise have 
not been the companion of La Salle in his great Western 
journey. 

Sojourning for a short period at Quebec, the adven- 
ture-loving Franciscan is permitted to go to a mission 
station on or near the site of the present town of Kings- 
ton, Canada West. 

Here there was much to gratify his love of novelty, 
and he passed considerable time in rambling among 
the Iroquois of New York, even penetrating as far 
eastward as the Dutch Fort Orange, now the city of 
Albany. 

Li 1678 he returned to Quebec, and was ordered to 
join the expedition of Robert La Salle. 

On the 6th of December Father Hennepin and a por- 
tion of the exploring party had entered the Niagara 
river. Li the vicinity of the Falls, the winter was 
passed, and while the artisans were preparing a ship 
above the Falls, to navigate the great lakes, the Recol- 
lect wiled away the hours in studying the manners and 



THE SHIP GRIFFIN.— HENNEPIN. 127 

customs of the Seneca Indians, and in admiring the 
sublimest handiwork of God on the globe. 

On the 7th of August, 1679, the ship bemg com- 
pletely rigged, unfurled its sails to the breezes of Lake 
Erie. The vessel was named the " Griffin," in honour 
of the arms of Frontenac, Governor of Canada, the first 
sliip of European construction that had ever ploughed 
the waters of the great inland seas of North America. 

After encountering a violent and dangerous storm on 
one of the lakes, during which they had given up aU 
hopes of escaping shipwreck, on the 27th of the month, 
they were safely moored in the harbour of "Missili- 
mackinack." From thence the party proceeded to 
Green Bay, where they left the ship, procured canoes, 
and continued along the coast of Lake Michigan. By 
the middle of January, 1680, La Salle had conducted 
his expedition to the Illinois river, and on an eminence 
near Lake Peoria, he commenced, with much heaviness 
of heart, the erection of a fort, which he called Creve- 
coeur, on account of the many disappointments he had 
experienced. 

La Salle, in the month of February, selected Henne- 
pin and two traders for the arduous and dangerous 
undertaking of exploring the unknown regions of the 
upper Mississippi. 

Daring and ambitious of distinction as a discoverer, 
he was not averse to such a commission, though per- 
haps he may have shrunk from the undertaking at so 
inclement a season as the last of February is, in this 
portion of North America. 

On the 29th of February, 1680, with two voyageurs, 
named Picard du Gay and Michael Ako, Hennepin em- 
barked in a canoe on the voyage of discovery. 



128 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

The venerable Ribourde, a member of a Burgundian 
family of high rank, and a fellow Franciscan, came 
down to the river bank to see him off, and, in bidding 
him farewell, told him to acquit himself like a man, and 
be of good courage. His words were, " Viriliter age et 
confortetur cor tuum." 

The canoe was loaded with about one hundred and 
fifty dollars' worth of merchandise for the purpose of 
trade with the Indians, and in addition La Salle pre- 
sented to Hennepin ten knives, twelve awls or bodkins, 
a parcel of tobacco, a package of needles, and a pound 
or two of white or black beads. 

The movements of Hennepin, during the month of 
March, are not very ' clearly related. He appears to 
have been detained at the junction of the Illinois with 
the Mississippi by the floating ice, until near the mid- 
dle of that month. He then commenced the ascent of 
the river for the first time by civilized man, though 
Marquette had, seven years before, descended from the 
Wisconsin. 

Surrounded by hostile and unknown natives, they 
cautiously proceeded. On the 11th of April, 1680, 
thirty-three bark canoes, containing a Dahkotah war 
party against the HHnois and Miami nations, hove in 
sight, and commenced discharging their arrows at the 
canoe of the Frenchmen. Perceiving the calumet of 
peace, they ceased their hostile demonstrations and ap- 
proached. The first night that Hennepin and his com- 
panions passed with the Dahkotah party was one of 
anxiety. The next morning, a chief named Narrhetoba 
asked for the peace calumet, filled it with willow bark 
and all smoked. It was then signified that the white 
men were to return with them to their villages. 



FRANCISCAN'S ATTEMPT TO PRAY. 129 

In his narrative the Franciscan remarks : — " I found 
it difficult to say my office before these Indians. Many 
seeing me move my lips, said in a fierce tone, ' Ouak- 
anche.' Michael, all out of countenance, told me, that 
if I continued to say my breviary, we should all three 
be killed, and the Picard begged me at least to pray 
apart, so as not to provoke them. I folloAved the 
latter's advice, but the more I concealed myself, the 
more I had the Indians at my heels, for when I entered 
the wood, they thought I was going to hide some goods 
under ground, so that I knew not on what side to turn 
to pray, for they never let me out of sight. This 
obliged me to beg pardon of my canoe-men, assuring 
them I could not dispense with saying my office. By 
the word ' Ouakanche,' the Indians meant that the 
book I was reading was a spirit, but by their gesture 
they nevertheless showed a kind of aversion, so that to 
accustom them to it, I chanted the Litany of the Blessed 
Virgin in the canoe, with my book opened. They 
thought that the breviary was a spirit which taught me 
to sing for their diversion, for these people are naturally 
fond of singing." 

This is the first mention of a Dahkotah word in a 
EurojDcan book. The savages were annoyed rather 
than enraged, at seeing the white man reading a book, 
and exclaimed " Wakan-de !" this is wonderful or super- 
natural. The war party was composed of several bands 
of the M'dewakantonwan Dahkotahs, and there was a 
diversity of opinion in relation to the disposition that 
should be made of the white men. The relatives of 
those who had been killed by the Miamis, were in 
favour of taking their scalps, but others were anxious 

9 



130 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

to retain the favour of the French, and open a trading 
intercourse. 

Perceiving one of the canoe-men shoot a wild turkey, 
they called the gun Manza Ouackange — iron that has 
understanding ; more correctly, Maza Wakande, this is 
the supernatural metal. 

Aquipaguatin, one of the head men, resorted to the 
following device to obtain merchandise. Says the 
Father, " this wily savage had the bones of some dis- 
tinguished relative, which he preserved with great care 
in some skins dressed and adorned with several rows of 
black and red porcupine quills. From time to time he 
assembled his men to give it a smoke, and made us 
come several days to cover the bones with goods, and 
by a present wipe away the tears he had shed for him, 
and for his own son killed by the Miamis. To appease 
this captious man, we threw on the bones several 
fathoms of tobacco, axes, knives, beads, and some black 
and white wampum bracelets. * * * * ♦ ♦ * 
We slept at the jDoint of the Lake of Tears, ^ which we 
so called from the tears which this chief shed all night 
long, or by one of his sons whom he caused to weep 
when he grew tired." 

The next day, after four or five leagues' sail, a chief 
came, and telling them to leave their canoes, he pulled 
up three piles of grass for seats. Then taking a piece 
of cedar, full of little holes, he placed a stick into one, 
which he revolved between the palms of his hands, 
until he kindled a fire, and informed the Frenchmen 
that they would be at Mille Lac in six days. On the 
nineteenth day after their captivity, they arrived in the 

^ Lake Pepin. 



HENNEPIN NEAR ST. PAUL.— MILLE LAC. 131 

vicinity of Saint Paul, not far, it is probable, from the 
marshy ground on which the Kaposia band once lived, 
and now called " Pig's Eye." 

The journal remarks, " Having arrived, on the nine- 
teenth day of our navigation, five leagues below St. 
Anthony's Falls, these Indians landed us in a bay, 
broke our canoe to pieces, and secreted their own in 
the reeds." 

They then followed the trail to Mille Lac, sixty 
leagues distant. As they approached their villages, the 
various bands began to show their spoils. The tobacco 
was highly prized, and led to some contention. The 
chalice of the Father, which glistened in the sun, they 
were afraid to touch, supposing it was " wakan."^ After 
five days' walk they reached the Issati (Dahkotah) 
settlements in the valley of the Rum river. The dif- 
ferent bands each conducted a Frenchman to their 
village, the chief Aquipaguetin taking charge of Hen- 
nepin. After marching through the marshes towards 
the sources of Rum river, five wives of the chief, in 
three bark canoes, met them and took them a short 
league to an island where their cabins were. 

An aged Indian kindly rubbed down the way-worn 
Franciscan — placing him on a bear-skin near the fire, 
he anointed his legs and the soles of his feet with wild- 
cat oil. 

The son of the chief took great pleasure in carrjdng 
upon his bare back the priest's robe with dead men's 
bones enveloped. It was called Pere Louis Chinnien — 
in the Dahkotah language Shinna or Shinnan signifies 

^ The word for supernatural, in ed, but pronounced " wakon," or 
the Dahkotah Lexicon, is thus spell- " wawkawn." 



Ib2 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

a buffalo robe. Hennepin's description of bis life on 
tbe island is in tbese words : — 

" Tbe day after our arrival, Aquipaguetin, wbo was 
tbe bead of a large family, covered me witb a robe made 
of ten large dressed beaver skins, trimmed witb porcu- 
pine quills. Tbis Indian sbowed me five or six of bis 
wives, telling tbem, as I afterwards learned, tbat tbey 
should in future regard me as one of tbeir children . 

" He set before me a bark disb full of fisb, and, seeing 
tbat I could not rise from tbe ground, be bad a small 
sweating-cabin made, in wbicb be made me enter naked 
witb four Indians. Tbis cabin be covered witb buffalo 
skins, and inside be put stones red-bot. He made me 
a sign to do as tbe others before beginning to sweat, but 
I merely concealed my nakedness witb a handkerchief. 
As soon as tbese Indians had several times breathed 
out quite violently, be began to sing vociferously, the 
others putting their hands on me and rubbing me while 
they wept bitterly. I began to faint, but I came out 
and could scarcely take my habit to put on. When he 
made me sweat thus three times a week, I felt as strong 
as ever." 

Tbe mariner's compass was a constant source of 
wonder and amazement. Aquipaguetin having assem- 
bled tbe braves, would ask Hennepin to show his com- 
pass. Perceiving tbat tbe needle turned, the chief 
harangued bis men, and told tbem that the Europeans 
were spirits, capable of doing anything. 

In the Franciscan's possession was an iron pot with 
lion paw feet, which tbe Indians would not touch unless 
their hands were wrapped in buffalo skins. 

Tbe women looked upon it as " wakan," and would 
not enter the cabin where it was. 



QUERIES OF THE DAHKOTAHS. 133 

" The chiefs of these savages, seeing that T was de- 
sirous to learn, frequently made me write, naming all 
the parts of the human body ; and as I would not put 
on paper certain indelicate words, at which they do not 
blush, they were heartily amused." 

They often asked the Franciscan questions, to answer 
which it was necessary to refer to his lexicon. This 
appeared very strange, and, as they had no word for 
paper, they said, " That white thing must be a spirit 
which tells Pere Louis all we say." 

Hennepin remarks : " These Indians often asked me 
how many wives and children I had, and how old I was, 
that is, how many winters ; for so these natives always 
count. Never illumined by the light of faith, they were 
surprised at my ans-wer. Pointing to our two French- 
men, whom I was then visiting, at a point three leagues 
from our village, I told them that a man among us 
could only have one wife ; that, as for me, I had pro- 
mised the Master of life to live as they saw me, and to 
come and live with them to teach them to be like the 
French. 

" But that gross people, till then lawless and faithless, 
turned all I said into ridicule. 'How,' said they, 'would 
you have these two men with thee have wives ? Ours 
would not live with them, for they have hair all over 
their face, and we have none there or elsewhere.' In 
fact they were never better pleased with me than when 
I was shaved, and from a complaisance, certainly not 
criminal, I shaved every week. 

" As I often went to ^dsit the cabins, I found a sick 
ohild, whose father's name was Mamenisi. Michael 
Ako would not accompany me ; the Picard du Gay alone 



134 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

followed me to act as sponsor, or rather to witness the 
baptism. 

^' I christened the child Antoinette, in honour of St. 
Anthony of Padua, as well as for the Picard's name, 
which was Anthony Auguelle. He was a native of 
Amiens, and nephew of the Procurator-General of the 
Premonstratensians both now at Paris. Having poured 
natural water on the head and uttered these words : — 
' Creature of God, I baptize thee in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,' I took 
half an altar cloth which I had wrested from the hands 
of an Indian who had stolen it from me, and put it on 
the body of the baptized child ; for as I could not say 
mass for want of wine and vestments, this piece of linen 
could not be put to better use, than to enshroud the 
first Christian child among these tribes. I do not know 
whether the softness of the linen had refreshed her, but 
she was the next day smiling in her mother's arms, who 
believed that I had cured the child — but she died soon 
after, to my great consolation. 

" During my stay among them, there arrived four 
savages, who said they were come alone five hundred 
leagues from the west, and had been four months upon 
the way. They assured us there was no such place as 
the Straits of Anian, and that they had travelled with- 
out resting, except to sleep, and had not seen or passed 
over any great lake, by which phrase they always mean 
the sea. 

" They further informed us that the nation of the 
Assenipoulacs (Assiniboines) who lie north-east of Issati, 
was not above six or seven days' journey ; that none of 
the nations, within their knowledge, who he to the east 



FALSEHOODS OF HENNEPIN. 135 

or north-west, had any great lake about their countries, 
which were very large, but only rivers which came 
from the north. They further assured us that there 
were very few forests in the countries through which 
they passed, insomuch that now and then they were 
forced to make fires of buffaloes' dung to boil their food. 
All these circumstances make it appear that there is no 
such place as the Straits of Anian, as we usually see 
them set down on the maps. And whatever efforts 
have been made for many years past by the English 
and Dutch, to find out a passage to the Frozen Sea, they 
have not yet been able to effect it. But by the help of 
my discovery, and the assistance of God, I doubt not 
but a passage may still be found, and that an easy one 
too. 

" For example, we may be transported into the Paci- 
fic Sea, by rivers which are large and capable of carry- 
ing great vessels, and from thence it is very easy to go to 
China and Ja^an, without crossing the equinoctial line, 
and, in all probability, Japan is on the same continent as 
America!' 

It is painful to witness a member of the sacred pro- 
fession so mendacious as Hennepin. After publishing 
a tolerably correct account of his adventures in Minne- 
sota, in 1683, at Paris, fifteen years after he issued 
another edition greatly enlarged, in which he claims to 
have descended the Mississippi towards the Gulf of 
Mexico, as well as discovered the Falls of St. Anthony. 
As the reader notes his glaring contradictions in this 
last work, he is surprised that the author should have 
been bold enough to contend, that the statements were 
reliable. Though a large portion was plagiarized from 



136 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



the aco^unts of other travellers, it had a rapid sale, and 
was translated into several languages.^ 



^ The following will give some 
idea of the popularity of Hennepin's 
narrative. It was prepared by Dr. 
O'Callaghan, for the Historical Ma- 
gazine, Jan. 1858, and is believed to 
be nearly a complete list of the seve- 
ral editions of Hennepin's books : 

No. 1. Description de la Louisiane. 
12mo. Paris, 1683. Meusel. Ter- 
naux. No. 985. 

2. The same. 12mo. Paris, 1684. 
Rich., in No. 403 of 1683. 

3. Descrizione della Luisiana. 
12mo. Bologna, 1686. Rib. Belg. 
Meusel Ternaux, No. 1012. Trans- 
lated by Casimir Frescot. 

4. Description de la Louisiane. 
12mo. Paris, 1688. Richarderie 
Faribault. 

5. Beschryving van Louisiana. 
4to. Amsterdam, 1688. Harv. 
Cat. 

6. Beschreibung, &c. 12mo. 
Nurnberg, 1689. Meusal. Ternaux, 
No. 1041. 

7. Nouvelle Decouverte. ]2mo. 
Utrecht, 1697. Ternaux, 1095. 
" Nouvelle Description," Meusel. 
Faribault. 

8. The same. 12mo. Amsterdam, 
1698. Ternaux, No. 1110. 

9. New Discovery. London, 1698. 
Ternaux, No. 1119, who calls it a 
4to. ; all the other catalogues an 8vo. 
J. R. B. says 2v. ; but see Rich. 

10. Another, same title. Bvo, 
London, 1698. J. R. B. 

11. Nouveau Voyage. 12mo. 
Utrecht, 1698. Ternaux, No. 1111. 
2v. Bib. Belg. Hennepin calls this 



his third vol. ; No. 1 sup., being his 
first, and No. 7 sup. his second. 
Rich. 

12. An edition in Dutch. 4to. 
Utrecht, 1698. J. R. B. 

13. Nouveau Voyage. Amster- 
dam, 1698. Faribault. 

14. A New Discovery of a Vast 
Country, &c. 8vo. London, Bon- 
wick, 1699. t. f. Ded. 4ff. Pref. 
2ff. Cont. 3ff. Text, pp. 240 and 
216, with tit., pref. and cont. to part 
II. ; two maps, six plates. [Not in 
any catalogue.] 

15. Relation, de un Pays, &c. 
12mo. Brusselas, 1699. Ternaux, 
1126. A translation into Spanish 
by Seb. Fern, de Medrano. 

16. Neue Entdekungen vieler 
grossen Landschaften in Amerika. 
12mo. Bremen, 1699. Ternaux, 
1049, who gives the date incorrectly, 
1690. Translated by Langen. Meu- 
sel, No. 6 of J. R. B., and an edition 
in German of No. 7. Supra. 

17. Voyage ou Nouvelle Decou- 
verte. 8vo. Amsterdam, 1704. 
Meusel, Rich., No. 8. 

18. The same. 8vo. Amsterdam, 
1711. Meusel. Faribault says 
" Nouvelle Description." 

19. The same. 12mo. Amster- 
dam, 1712. J. R. B. 

20. A Discovery of a large, rich, 
&c. 8vo, London, 1720. Rich., 
No. 12. 

21. Nouvelle Description. Am- 
sterdam, 1720. Faribault. 

22. Nouvelle Decouverte. 4to. 
Amsterdam, 1737. Richarderie. In 



KING OF FRANCE DISSATISFIED WITH HENNEPIN. 137 

No doubt much of the information which the author 
obtained in relation to Minnesota, was obtained from 
Du Luth, whom he met in the Dahkotah country, and 
with whom he descended the Mississippi on his return 
to Canada. 

Having made a favourable acquaintance with English 
gentlemen, he dedicated the edition of his work, pub- 
lished at Utrecht, in 1698, to King William, and the 
contents induced the British to send vessels to enter 
the Mississippi river. Callieres, Governor of Canada, 
writing to Pontchartrain,^ the Minister, says, " I have 
learned that they are preparing vessels in England and 
Holland to take possession of Louisiana, upon the rela- 
tion of Pere Louis Hennepin, a Recollect who has made 
a book and dedicated it to King William." 

After he had earned a reputation, not to be coveted, 
he desired to return to America, and Louis XIV., in a 
despatch to Callieres, writes, "His majesty has been 
informed that Father Hennepin, a Dutch Franciscan, 
who has formerly been in Canada, is desirous of return- 
ing thither. As his majesty is not satisfied with the 
conduct of the friar, it is his pleasure, if he return 
thither, that they arrest and send him to the Intendant 
of Rochefort." 

In the year 1701 he was still in Europe, attached to 
a Convent in Italy. ^ He appears to have died in 
obscurity, unwept and unhonoured. 

Histoire des Incas. A translation of ^ May 12, 1699. See Smith's Hist. 

Garcilasso de la Vega by Rousseler. Wisconsin, vol. i., p. 318. 

23. Neue Entdekungen, &c. Bre- ^ Historical Magazine, Boston, p. 

men, 1742. The same as No. 15, 316, vol. i. 
with a new title page. 



138 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Du Luth and not Hennepin was considered the real 
discoverer of Minnesota. . Le Clercq remarks, that " in 
the last year of M. de Frontenac's first administration, 
Sieur du Luth, a man of talent and experience, opened 
a way to the missionaries and the gospel in many dif- 
ferent nations, turning toward the north of that lake 
(Superior), where he even built a fort. He advanced 
as far as the Lake of the Issati (Mille Lac), called Lake 
Buade, from the family name of M. de Frontenac." 

In the month of June, 1680, he left his post on Lake 
Superior, and with two canoes, an Indian, and four 
Frenchmen, entered a river, eight leagues below, ascend- 
ing to the sources of which, he made a portage to a lake, 
which is the head of a river that entered into the Mis- 
sissippi. Proceeding toward the Dahkotah villages he 
met Hennepin, with a party of Indians. 

Returning to Quebec, Du Luth visited France, and 
conferred with the Minister of the Colonies, but in 
1683, he was at Mackinaw fortifjdng the post against 
a threatened attack by the savages, and sending ex- 
presses to the Indians north and west of Lake Superior, 
who traded at Hudson's Bay with the English, to come 
and traffic with the French. 

In the spring of 1683, Governor De La Barre sent 
twenty men, under the command of Nicholas Perrot, to 
establish frendly alliances with the loways and Dah- 
kotahs. Proceeding to the Mississippi, he estabhshed a 
post below the mouth of the " Ouiskonche"^ (Wiscon- 
sin), which was known as Fort St. Nicholas.^ 

He found the Miamies, Foxes, and Maskoutens, at war 

^ La Potherie. ^ Bellin. 



PERROT'S INTERVIEW WITH DAHKOTAHS.— LEAD MINES. 139 

with the Dahkotahs, who were at that time in alliance 
with their old foes, the Ojibways. 

Frenchmen visited the Dahkotahs during the winter j 
and, at the opening of navigation, a deputation of them 
came down to the post, and carried Perrot with great 
parade, on a robe of beavers, to the lodge of their chief, 
chanting songs, and weeping over his head according to 
custom. 

He learned from the Dahkotahs a droll adventure. 
The Hurons, who had fled to them for refuge, at length 
excited them to war. The Hurons secreted themselves 
in marshes, keeping their heads only out of water. The 
Dahkotahs, knowing that they would travel in the night, 
devised an ingenious stratagem. Cutting up beaver-skins 
into cords, they stretched them around the marshes, and 
suspended bells on them which they had obtained from 
the French. When night came the Hurons marched, 
and, stumbling over the unseen cords, they rung the 
bells, which was a signal for the attack of the Dahko- 
tahs, who killed the whole party with one exception. 

While they were in the neighbourhood, they pillaged 
the goods of some Frenchmen ; but, under the threats 
of Perrot, they were brought back. 

The Miamies brought to the post lumps of lead, which 
they said were found between the rocks, on the banks of 
a small stream which flowed into the Mississippi, about 
two days' journey below that point. These were pro- 
bably the mines of Galena, which are marked on De 
risle's maps of the Mississippi. 

In the month of March, 1684, notwithstanding all 
the attempts of the French to keep the peace, a band 
of Seneca and Cayuga warriors, having met seven canoes 



140 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

manned by fourteen Frenchmen, with fifteen or sixteen 
thousand pounds of merchandise, who were going to 
trade with the " Scioux," pillaged and made them 
prisoners; and, after detaining them nine days, sent 
them away without arms, food, or canoes. This attack 
caused much alarm in Canada; and Du Luth, who 
appeared to have been in command at Green Bay, was 
ordered by the Governor of Canada to come and state 
the number of allies he could bring. 

Perrot, who happened to be engaged in trade among 
the Outagamis (Foxes), not very far distant from the 
bay, rendered him great assistance in collecting allies. 

With great expedition he came to Niagara, the place 
of rendezvous, with a band of Indians, and would alone 
have attacked the Senecas, had it not been for an 
express order from De La Barre, the governor, to 
desist. 

When Louis XIV. heard of this outbreak of the Iro- 
quois, he felt, to use his words, " tljat it was a grave 
misfortune for the colony of New France," and then, in 
his letter to the governor, he adds : "It a23pears to me 
that one of the principal causes of the war arises from 
one Du Luth having caused two Iroquois to be killed 
who had assassinated two Frenchmen in Lake Superior, 
and you sufficiently see how much this man's voyage, 
which cannot produce any advantage to the colony, 
and which was permitted only in the interest of some 
private persons, has contributed to distract the repose 
of the colony." 

The English of New York, knowing the hostility of 
the Iroquois to the French, used the opportunity to trade 
with the distant Indians. In 1685, one Roseboom, with 



DU LUTH.— ENGLISH CAPTURED. 141 

some young men, had traded with the Ottawas in Michi- 
gan. 

In the year 1686, an old Frenchman, who had lived 
among the Dutch and English in New York, came to 
Montreal, to visit a child at the Jesuit boarding-school ; 
and he stated that a Major McGregory, of Albany, was 
contemplating an expedition to Mackinac. 

Denonville having declared war in 1687, most of the 
French left, the region of the Mississippi. Perrot and 
Boisguilloty at the time trading near the Wisconsin, 
leaving a few " coureurs des bois" to protect their goods 
from the Dahkotahs, joined Du Luth, who was in com- 
mand at Green Bay. 

The Governor of Canada ordered Du Luth to proceed 
to the present Detroit river, and watch whether the Eng- 
lish passed into Lake St. Clair. In accordance with the 
order, he left Green Bay. Being provided with fifty 
armed men, he established a post called Fort St. Joseph, 
some thirty miles above Detroit. 

In the year 1687, on the 19 th of May, the brave and 
distmguished Tonty, who wa^: a cousin of Du Luth, 
arrived at Detroit, from his fort on the Illinois. Duran- 
taye and Du Luth, knowing that he had arrived, came 
down from Fort St. Joseph with thirty captive English. 
Here Tonty and Du Luth joined forces and proceeded 
toward the Iroquois country. As they were coasting 
Lake Erie, they met and captured Major McGregory, of 
Albany, then on his way with thirty Englishmen, to 
tra^e with the Indians at Mackinac. 

Du Luth having reached Lake Ontario, we find him 
engaged in that conflict with the Senecas of the Gene- 
see valley, when Father Angleran, the superintendent 
of the Mackinac mission, was severely but not mortally 



142 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



wounded. After this battle, he returned, in company 
with Tonty, to his post on the Detroit river. ^ 



^ Baron La Hon tan speaka of 
Grisolon de la Tourette being at 
Niagara in August, 1687, and calls 
him a brother of Du Luth. 

In 1089, immediately previous to 
the burning of Schenectady, we find 
him fighting the Iroquois in the 
neighbourhood, and there is reason 
to suppose that he was engaged in 
the midnight sack of that town. 
As late as the year 1696, he is on 
duty at Fort Frontenac ; but after 
the peace of Ryswick, which occa- 
sioned a suspension of hostilities, we 
hear but little more of this man, 
who was the first of whom we have 
any account, who came by way of 
Lake Superior to the upper Missis- 
sippi. 

The letter of one of the Jesuit 
fathers, shows that in some things 
he was as superstitious as the Dah- 
kotahs, with whom he once ti'aded. 
While in command of Fort Fronte- 
nac, in 1696, he gave the following 
certificate : 

"I, the subscriber, certify to all 
whom it may concern, that having 



been tormented by the gout for the 
space of twenty-three years, and 
with such severe pains that it gave 
me no rest for the space of three 
months at a time, I addressed myself 
to Catherine Tegahkouita, an Iro- 
quois virgin, deceased at the Sault 
Saint Louis, in the reputation of 
sanctity, and I promised her to visit 
her tomb if God should give me 
health through her intercession. I 
have been so perfectly cured at the 
end of one novena which I made in 
her honour, that after five months I 
have not perceived the slightest 
touch of my gout. 

" Given at Fort Frontenac, this 
18th day of August, 1696. 

"J. De Luth, Capt. of the Marine 
Corps, Commander Fort Frontenac." 

He died in 1710. The despatch 
announcing the fact to the Home 
Government, is expressive in its sim- 
plicity : Capt. Du Luth is dead, " he 
was an honest man." Who would 
wish more said of him ? His name 
is spelled Du Luth, Du Lut, Dulhut, 
and De Luth, in the old documents. 



FORMAL OCCUPANCY OF MINNESOTA. 148 



CHAPTER VII. 

Although Du Luth and Hennepin had visited Minne- 
sota, France laid no formal claim to the country, until 
the year 1689, when Perrot, accompanied by Le Sueur, 
Father Marest, and others, planted the cross and affixed 
the arms of France. 

The first official document pertaining to Minnesota is 
worthy of preservation, and thus reads : — 

" Nicholas Perrot, commanding for the King, at the 
post of the Nadouessioux, commissioned by the Marquis 
Denonville, Governor and Lieutenant-Governor of all 
New France, to manage the interests of commerce 
among all the Indian tribes, and people of the Bay des 
Puants,^ Nadouessioux,^ Mascoutins, and other western 
nations of the Upper Mississippi, and to take possession 
in the King's name of all the places where he has here- 
tofore been, and whither he will go. 

" We, this day, the eighth of May, one thousand six 
hundred and eighty-nine, do, in the presence of the 
Reverend Father Marest of the Society of Jesus, mis- 
sionary among the Nadouessioux ; of Monsieur de Borie- 

^ Green Bay, Wisconsin. * Dahkotahs. 



144 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



guillot,^ commanding the French in the neighbourhood 
of the Ouiskonche^ on the Mississippi ; Augustin Legar- 
deur, Esquire, Sieur de Caumont, and of Messieurs Le 
Sueur, Hebert, Lemire, and Blein : 

"Declare to all whom it may concern, that, being 
come from the Bay des Puants, and to the Lake of the 
Ouiskonches, and to the river Mississippi, we did trans- 
port ourselves to the country of the Nadouessioux, on 
the border of the river St. Croix,^ and at the mouth of 
the river St. Pierre,'' on the bank of which were the 
Mantantans;^ and, farther up to the interior to the 
north-east of the Mississippi, as far as the Menchoka- 
tonx,^ with whom dwell the majority of the Songes- 
kitons, and other Nadouessioux, who are to the north- 
east of the Mississippi, to take possession for, and in the 
name of the King, of the countries and rivers inhabited 



'■ Charlevoix writes Boisguillot. 

2 Wisconsin, (Fort St. Nicholas,) 
Ouiskonche, Mesconsing, Ouiscon- 
sing, Wiskonsan, are some of the 
foi'mer spellings of this word. 

^ This is not ecclesiastical in its 
associations, but named after Mons. 
Saint Croix, who was drowned at its 
mouth. — La Harpe's Louisiana. 

* Nicollet supposes that this river 
bore the name of Capt. St. Pierre. 

5 The Dahkotahs have a tradition, 
that a tribe called Onktokadan, who 
lived on the St. Ci'oix just above the 
lake, was exterminated by the Foxes. 

At an early date the Mde-wa-kan- 
ton-wan division of the Dahkotah 
tribe split into two parties, one of 
which was denominated Wa-kpa-a- 
ton-we-dan, and the other Ma-tan- 
ton-wan. The former name signifies, 
— Those-who-dwell-on-the-creek, be- 



cause they had their village on Rice 
Creek, a stream which empties into 
the Mississippi seven miles above 
the Falls of St. Anthony. The sig- 
nification of the latter name is un- 
known. It is said that Ta-te-psin, 
"\Va-su-wi-ca-xta-xni, Ta-can-rpi-sa- 
pa, A-nog-i-na jin, Ru-ya-pa, and Ta- 
can-ku-wa-xte, whose names signify, 
respectively, Bounding-Wind, Bad- 
Hail, Black-Tomahawk, Ile-stands- 
both-sides, Eagle-Head, and Good- 
Road, are descendants of the Wa-kpa- 
a-ton-we-dan. — ^^Va-ku-te, Ta-o-ya-te- 
du-ta, Ma-za-ro-ta, Ma-rpi-ya-ma-za, 
Ma-rpi-wi-ca-xta, and Xa-kpe-dan, 
are said to be Ma-tan-ton-wans. The 
respective signification of their names 
is as follows: Shooter, His-scarlet- 
people, Grey-Iron, Iron-Cloud, Sky- 
Man, and Little-six. 
^ M'daywawkawntwawns. 



FORT AT LAKE PEPIN. 145 

by the said tribes, and of which they are proprietors. 
The present act done in our presence, signed with our 
hand and subscribed."^ 

The first French establishment in Minnesota was on 
the west shore of Lake Pepin, a short distance above 
the entrance.^ On a map of the year 1700, it was 
called Fort Bon Secours ; three years later it was marked 
Fort Le Sueur, and abandoned f but in a much later 
map it is correctly called Fort Perrot."* 

The year that Perrot visited Minnesota, Frontenac, 
who had been recalled seven years before, was recom- 
missioned as Governor of Canada. He issued orders 
that the Frenchmen in the upper Mississippi country 
should return to Mackinaw. 

Frontenac was dogmatic and overbearing, though 
deeply interested in the extension of the power of 
France. During the first term of office he had opposed 
the ecclesiastics, who deplored the ill effects of rum 
and licentious " coureurs des bois" upon the morals of 
the savages, and desired both excluded from the country. 
He had no interest in Christianity, and still less confi- 
dence in the Jesuits. In a communication to the 
government he bluntly said, to Colbert the minister, 
" To speak frankly to you, they think as much about 
the conversion of beavers as of souls. The majority of 
their missions are mere mockeries." 

Learning that Durantaye, the Commandant at Macki- 

^ Then are given the names of ^ Bellin's description of Map of 

those already mentioned. This re- North America, 

cord was drawn up at Green Bay, ' De I'lsle's Maps 1700, and 1703 

Wisconsin. This hast name appears incorrect. 



* See Jeffery's Map, 1762. 



10 



146 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

naw, was disposed to be friendly to missionary schemes, 
he superseded him by the appointment of Louvigny. 

Perrot, who was on a visit to Montreal, conducted 
the new commander to his post, where he found the 
Ottawas wavering, and about to carry their peltries to 
the English ; but by his uncommon tact he regained 
their confidence, and a flotilla of one hundred canoes, 
with furs valued at one hundred thousand crowns, 
started towards Montreal. 

On the eighteenth of August, 1690, the citizens of that 
city perceived the waters of the Saint Lawrence dark- 
ened by descending canoes, and supposing that they 
were filled by the dreaded Iroquois, alarm-guns were 
fired to call in the citizens from the country ; but this 
terror was soon turned to joy, by a messenger arriving 
with the intelligence that it was a party of five hundred 
Indians, of various tribes near Mackinaw, who had 
come to the city to exchange their peltries. So large 
a number from the North- West had not appeared for 
years ; and, on the twenty-fifth, Count Frontenac gave 
them a grand feast of two oxen, six large dogs, two 
barrels of wine, and some prunes, with a plentiful 
supply of tobacco. 

The Ottawas in council demanded the meaning of the 
hatchet Perrot had hung in their cabin. 

Frontenac told them that they were aware of the 
tidings he had received, that a powerful army was com- 
ing to ravage his country ; that all that was necessary 
to conclude was the mode of proceeding, whether to go 
and meet this army, or to wait for it with a firm foot ; 
that he put into their hands the hatchet which had been 
formerly given them, and had since been kept suspended 



LONG DESIRED PELTRIES ARRIVE AT MONTREAL. 147 

for them, and he doubted not they would make good 
use of it. 

He then, hatchet in hand, sung the war song, in 
which the Indians joined. 

The increasing Iroquois and Enghsh hostility made 
it a dangerous undertaking to transport in canoes to or 
from Mackinaw. 

Lieutenant D' Argenteuil was despatched by Frontenac 
in 1692, with eighteen Canadians on increased pay to 
Mackinaw, with an order to Louvigny, the commander, 
to send down all the Frenchmen that could be spared 
from the North-West, and the large amount of peltries 
that had accumulated at his post. 

On the seventeenth of August two hundred canoes 
filled with Frenchmen and Ottawas arrived from the 
upper country at Montreal with the long-detained furs. 

" The merchant, the farmer, and other individuals who 
might have some peltries there, were dying of hunger, 
with property they could not enjoy. Credit was ex- 
hausted, and the apprehension universal that the Eng- 
lish might seize this last resource of the country while 
it was on the way. Terms sufficiently strong were not 
to be found to praise and bless him by whose care so 
much property had arrived."^ 

The Indians were entertained at the governor's table, 
and on Sunday, the sixth of September, there was a 
grand war dance. The next day they received presents, 
and during the week returned to their own country. 

The French soon followed under the direction of 
Tonty, Commandant of the Illinois. La Motte, Cadil- 
lac, and D' Argenteuil shortly after were ordered to 
Mackinaw, Louvigny being recalled. Perrot was sta- 

^ Paris Doc. vol. ix. N. Y. Col. Hist. 



148 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

tioned among the Miamis, at a place called " Malamek," 
in Michigan ; and Le Sueur was sent to La Pointe of 
Lake Superior to maintain the peace that had just been 
concluded between the Ojibways and Dahkotahs. 

The mission of Le Sueur was important. As the 
Foxes and Mascoutins had become inimical, the north- 
ern route to the Dahkotahs was the only one that could 
be used in transporting goods. 

Li the year 1695, the second post in Minnesota was 
built by Le Sueur, Above Lake- Pepin, and below the 
mouth of the. St. Croix, there are many islands, and the 
largest of these was selected as the site.^ The object 
of the establishment was to interpose a barrier between 
the Dahkotahs and Ojibways, and maintaui the peaceful 
relations which had been created. Charlevoix speaks 
of the island as having a very beautiful prairie, and 
remarks that " the French of Canada have made it a 
centre of commerce for the western parts, and many 
pass the winter here, because it is a good comitry for 
hunting." 

On the fifteenth of July, Le Sueur arrived at Mon- 
treal with a party of Ojibways, and the jirst Dahhotah 
hrave that had ever visited Canada. 

The Indians were . much impressed with* the power 
of France by the marching of a detachment of seven 
hundred picked men, under Chevalier Cresafi, who were 
on their way to La Chine. 

On the eighteenth, Frontenac, m the presence of 
Callieres and other persons of distinction, gave them an 
audience. 

The first speaker was the chief of the Ojibway band 
at La Pointe, Shingowahbay, who said : — 

^ Bellin in his description of the Chart of North America. 



OJIBWAY AND DAHKOTAH CHIEFS' SPEECH. 149 

" That he was come to pay his respects to Onontio.^ 
in the name of the young warriors of Point Chagoiia 
migon, and to thank him for having given them some 
Frenchmen to dwell with them ; to testify their sorrow 
for one Jobin, a Frenchman, who was killed at a feast 
accidentally, and not maliciously. We come to ask a 
favour of you, which is to let us act. We are allies of 
the Sciou. Some Outagamies or Mascoutins have been 
killed. The Sciou came to mourn with us. Let us act, 
Father; let us take revenge. 

"Le Sueur alone, who is acquainted with the lan- 
guage of the one and the other, can serve us. We ask 
that he return with us." 

Another speaker of the Ojibways was Le Brochet. 

Teeoskahtay, the Dahkotah chief, before he spoke, 
spread out a beaver robe, and laying another with a 
tobacco pouch and otter skin, began to weep bitterly. 
After drying his tears he said : — 

" All of the nations had a father who afforded them 
protection ; all of them have iron. But he was a bas- 
tard in quest of a father ; he was come to see him, and 
begs that he will take pity on him." 

He then placed upon the beaver robe twenty-two 
arrows, at each arrow naming a Dahkotah village that 
desired Frontenac's protection. Eesuming his speech, 
he remarked : — 

" It is not on account of what I bring that I hope he 
who rules this earth will have pity on me. I learned 
from the Sauteurs that he wanted nothing; that he was 
the Master of the Iron ; that he had a big heart, into 
which he could receive all the nations. This has 

^ The title the Indians always gave to the Governor, 



150 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

induced me to abandon my people to come to seek his 
protection, and to beseech him to receive me among the 
number of his children. Take courage, Great Captain, 
and reject me not; despise me not though I appear poor 
in your eyes. All the nations here present know that 
I am rich, and the little they offer here is taken from 
my lands." 

Count Frontenac in reply told the chief that he would 
receive the Dahkotahs as his children, on condition that 
they would be obedient, and that he would send back 
Le Sueur with him. 

Teeoskahtay, taking hold of the governor's knees, 
wept, and said : — " Take pity on us ; we are well aware 
that we are not able to speak, being children ; but Le 
Sueur, who understands our language, and has seen all 
our villages, will next year inform you what will have 
been achieved by the Sioux nations, represented by 
those arrows before you." 

Having finished, a Dahkotah woman, the wife of a 
great chief whom Le Sueur had purchased from captivity 
at Mackinaw, approached those in authority, and with 
downcast eyes embraced their knees, weeping and say- 
ing :— 

" I thank thee. Father ; it is by thy means I have 
been liberated, and am no longer captive." 

Then Teeoskahtay resumed : — 

" I speak like a man penetrated with joy. The Great 
Captain ; he who is the Master of the Iron, assures me 
of his protection, and I promise him that if he conde- 
scends to restore my children, now prisoners among the 
FoxeS; Ottawas, and Hurons, I will return hither, and 
bring with me the twenty- two villages whom he has just 
restored to life by promising to send them Iron." 



DAHKOTAH CHIEF DIES IN CANADA. 151 

On the 14 th of August, two weeks after the Ojibway 
chief left for his home on Lake Superior, Nicholas Per- 
rot arrived with a deputation of Sauks, Foxes, Meno- 
monees, Miamis of Maaramek, and Pottowattamies. 

Two days after, they had a council with the governor, 
who thus spoke to a Fox brave : — 

" I see that you are a young man ; your nation has 
quite turned away from my wishes; it has pillaged 
some of my young men, whom it has treated as slaves. 
I know that your father, who loved the French^ had no 
hand in the indignity. You only imitate the example 
of your father, who had sense, when you do not co- 
operate with those of your tribe who are wishing to go 
over to my enemies, after they grossly insulted me, and 
defeated the Sioux, whom I now consider my son. I 
pity the Sioux ; I pity the dead whose loss I deplore. 
Perrot goes up there, and he will speak to your nation 
from me, for the release of their prisoners ; let them 
attend to him." 

Teeoskahtay never returned to his native land. 
While in Montreal he was taken sick, and in thirty- 
three days he ceased to breathe ; and, followed by white 
men, his body was interred in the white man's grave. 

Le Sueur, instead of going back to Minnesota that 
year, as was expected, went to France, and received 
a license, in 1697, to open certain mines supposed 
to exist in Minnesota. The ship in which he was 
returning, was captured by the English, and he was 
taken to England. After his release, he went back to 
France, and, in 1698, obtained a new commission for 
mining. 

While Le Sueur was in Europe, the Dahkotahs 
waged war against the Foxes and Miamis. In retalia- 



152 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

tion, the latter raised a war party, and entered the land 
of the Dahkotahs. Finding their foes intrenched, and 
assisted by " coureurs des bois," they were indignant ; 
and on their return they had a skirmish with some 
Frenchmen, who were carrying goods to the Dahko- 
tahs. 

Shortly after, they met Perrot, and were about to 
burn him to death, when prevented by some friendly 
Foxes. The Miamis, after this, were disposed to be 
friendly to the Iroquois. In 1696, the year previous, 
the authorities at Quebec decided that it was expedient 
to abandon all the posts west of Mackinaw, and with- 
draw the French from Wisconsin and Minnesota. 

The "voyageurs" were not disposed to leave the 
country, aiid the governor wrote to Pontchartrain for 
instructions, in October, 1698. In his despatch he 
remarks : — 

"In this conjuncture, and under all these circum- 
stances, we consider it our duty to postpone, until new 
instructions from the court, the execution of Sieur Le 
Sueur's enterprise for the mines, though the promise 
had already been given him to send two canoes in 
advance to Missilimackinac, for the purpose of pur- 
chasing there some provisions and other necessaries for 
his voyage, and that he would be permitted to go and 
join them early in the spring with the rest of his hands. 
What led us to adopt this resolution has been, that the 
French who remained to trade off with the Five Na- 
tions the remainder of their merchandise, might, on 
seeing entirely new comers arriving there, consider 
themselves entitled to dispense with coming down, and 
perhaps adopt the resolution to settle there ; whilst, 
seeing no arrival there, with permission to do what is 



LE SUEUR'S LICENSE TO MINE REVOKED. 153 

forbidden, the reflection they will be able to make 
during the winter, and the apprehension of being guilty 
of crime, may oblige them to return in the spring. 

" This would be very desirable, in consequence of the 
great difficulty there will be in constraining them to it, 
should they be inchned to lift the mask altogether and 
become buccaneers; or should Sieur Le Sueur, as he 
easily could do, furnish them with goods for their 
beaver and smaller peltry, which he might send down 
by the return of other Frenchmen, whose sole desire is 
to obey, and who have remained only because of the 
impossibility of getting their effects down. This would 
rather induce those who would continue to lead a vaga- 
bond life to remain there, as the goods they would 
obtain from Le Sueur's people would afford them the 
means of doing so." 

In reply to this communication, Louis XIV. answered 
that — 

"His majesty has approved that the late Sieur de 
Frontenac and De Champigny, suspended the execution 
of the license granted to the man named Le Sueur to 
proceed, with fifty men, to explore some mines on the 
banks of the Mississippi. He has revoked said license, 
and desires that the said Le Sueur, or any other person, 
be prevented from leaving the colony on pretence of 
going in search of mines, without his majesty's express 
permission." 

Le Sueur, undaunted by these drawbacks to the pro- 
secution of a favourite project, again visited France. 



154 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

I'oRTUNATELT for Le SuGur, D'Iberville, who was a 
friend, and closely connected bj marriage, was appointed 
governor of the new territory of Louisiana/ 

In the month of December he arrived from France, 
with thirty workmen, to proceed to the supposed mines 
in Minnesota. 

On the thirteenth of July, 1700, with a felucca, two 
canoes, and nineteen men, having ascended the Missis- 
sippi, he had reached the mouth of the Missouri, and 
six leagues above this he passed the Illinois. He there 
met three Canadians, who came to join him, with a 
letter from Father Marest, who had once attempted a 
mission among the Dahkotahs, dated July 13, Mission 
Immaculate Conception of the Holy Virgin, in Illinois. 

" I have the honour to write, in order to inform you 
that the Saugiestas have been defeated by the Scioux and 
Ayavois (lowas). The people have formed an alliance 
with the Quincapous (Kickapoos), some of the Mecou- 
tins, Eenards (Foxes), and Metesigamias, and gone to 
revenge themselves, not on the Scioux, for they are too 
much afraid of them, but perhaps on the Ayavois, or 
very likely upon the Paoutees, or more probably upon 

^ Charlevoix says that he was the father of the governor, perhaps wife's 
father? 



LE SUEUR MEETS A WAR PARTY. 155 

the Osages, for these suspect nothing, and the others 
are on their guard. 

" As jou will probably meet these alHed nations, you 
ought to take precaution against their plans, and not 
allow them to board your vessel, since iliey are traitors^ 
and utterly faithless. I pray God to accompany you in 
all your designs." 

Tw^enty-two leagues above the IlHnois, he passed a 
small stream which he called the River of Oxen, and 
nine leagues beyond this he passed a small river on the 
west side, where he met four Canadians descending the 
Mississippi, on their way to the Illinois. On the 30th 
of July, nine leagues above the last-named river, he 
met seventeen Scioux, in seven canoes, who were going 
to revenge the death of three Scioux, one of whom had 
been burned, and the others killed, at Tamarois, a few 
days before his arrival in that village. As he had pro- 
mised the chief of the Illinois to appease the Scioux, who 
should go to war against his nation, he made a present 
to the chief of the party to engage him to turn back. 
He told them the King of France did not wish them to 
make this river more bloody, and that he was sent to 
tell them that, if they obeyed the king's word, they 
would receive in future all things necessary for them. 
The chief answered that he accepted the present, that 
is to say, that he would do as had been told him. 

From the 30th of July to the 25th of August, Le 
Sueur advanced fifty-three and one-fourth leagues to a 
small river which he called the River of the Mine.^ At 
the mouth it runs from the north, but it turns to the 
north-east. On the right seven leagues, there is a lead 

' This is the first mention of the Galena mines. 



156 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

mine in a prairie, one and a half leagues ; the river is 
only navigable in high water, that is to say, from early 
spring till the month of June. 

From the 25th to the 27th he made ten leagues, 
passed two small rivers, and made himself acquainted 
with a mine of lead, from which he took a supply. 
From the 27th to the 30th he made eleven and a half 
leagues, and met five Canadians, one of whom had 
been dangerously wounded in the head. They were 
naked, and had no ammunition except a miserable gun, 
with five or six loads of powder and balls. They said 
they were descending from the Scioux to go to Tama- 
rois ; and, when seventy leagues above, they perceived 
nine canoes in the Mississippi, in which were ninety 
savages, who robbed and cruelly beat them. This party 
were going to war against the Scioux, and were com- 
posed of four different nations, the Outagamis (Foxes), 
Saquis (Sauks), Poutouwatamis (Pottowattamies), and 
Pauns (Winnebagoes), who dwell in a country eighty 
leagues east of the Mississippi from where Le Sueur 
then was. 

The Canadians determined to follow the detachment, 
which was composed of twenty-eight men. This day 
they made seven and a half leagues. On the 1st of Sep- 
tember, he passed the Wisconsin river. It runs into the 
Mississippi from the north-east. It is nearly one and 
a half miles wide. At about seventy-five leagues up 
this river, on the right, ascending, there is a portage of 
more than a league. The half of this portage is shaking 
ground, and at the end of it is a small river which 
descends into a bay called Winnebago Bay. It is in- 
habited by a great number of nations who carry their 
furs to Canada. Monsieur Le Sueur came by the Wis- 



DAHKOTAHS ROBBED CANADIANS. 157 

consin river to the Mississippi, for the first time, in 
1683, on his way to the Scioux country, where he had 
ah^eady passed seven years at different periods. The 
Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Wisconsin, is less 
than a half mile wide. From the 1st of September to 
the 5th, our voyageur advanced fourteen leagues. He 
passed, the river " Aux Canots," which comes from the 
north-east, and. then the Quincapous, named from a 
nation which once dwelt upon its banks. 

From the 5th to the 9th, he made ten and a half 
leagues, and passed the Rivers Cachee and Aux Ailes. 
The same day he perceived canoes, filled with savages, 
descending the river, and the five Canadians recognised 
them as the party who had robbed them. They placed 
sentinels in the wood, for fear of being surprised by 
land ; and, when they had approached within hearing, 
they cried to them that if they approached farther 
they would fire. They then drew up by an island, at 
half the distance of a gun shot. Soon, four of the 
principal men of the band approached in a canoe, and 
asked if it was forgotten that they were our brethren, 
and with what design we had taken arms when we 
perceived them. Le Sueur replied that he had cause 
to distrust them, since they had robbed five of his 
party. Nevertheless, for the surety of his trade, being 
forced to be at peace with all the tribes, he demanded 
no redress for the robbery, but added merely that the 
king, their master and his, wished that his subjects 
should navigate that river without insult, and that 
they had better beware how they acted. 

The Indian who had spoken was silent, but another 
said they had been attacked by the Scioux, and that if 
they did not have pity on them, and give them a little 



158 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

powder, they should not be able to reach their village. 
The consideration of a missionary, who was to go up 
among the Scioux, and whom these savages might meet, 
induced them to give two pounds of powder, 

M. Le Sueur made the same day three leagues ; passed 
a stream on the west, and afterwards another river on 
the east, which is navigable at all times, and which the 
Indians call Red river. 

On the 10th, at daybreak, they heard an elk whistle, 
on the other side of the river. A Canadian crossed in 
a small Scioux canoe, which they had found, and shortly 
returned with the body of the animal, which was very 
easily killed, " quand il est en rut," that is from the be- 
ginning of September until the end of October. The 
hunters at this time make a whistle of a piece of wood, 
or reed, and when they hear an elk whistle, they answer 
it. The animal, believing it to be another elk, ap- 
proaches, and is killed with ease. 

From the 10th to the 14th, M. Le Sueur made seven- 
teen and a half leagues, passing the rivers Raisin and 
Paquilenettes, (perhaps the Wazi Ozu and Buffalo.) 
The same day he left, on the east side of the Missis- 
sippi, a beautiful and large river, which descends from 
the very far north, and called Bon Secours (Chippeway), 
on account of the great quantity of buffalo, elk, bears, 
and deers, which are found there. Three leagues up 
this river there is a mine of lead, and seven leagues 
above, on the same side, they found another long river, 
in the vicinity of which there is a copper mine, from 
which he had taken a lump of sixty pounds, in a former 
voyage. In order to make these mines of any account, 
peace must be obtained between the Scioux and Outa- 
gamis (Foxes), because the latter, who dwell on the 



LAKE PEPIN.— CANNON RIVER. 159 

east side of the Mississippi, pass this road continually 
when going to war against the Scioux. 

Li this region, at one and a half leagues on the north- 
west side, commenced a lake, which is six leagues long 
and more than one broad, called Lake Pepin. It is 
bounded on the west by a chain of mountains ; on the 
east is seen a prairie; and on the north-west of the 
lake there is another prairie two leagues long and one 
wide. In the neighbourhood is a chain of mountains 
quite two hundred feet high, and more than one and a 
half miles long. In these are found several caves, to 
which the bears retire in winter. Most of the caverns 
are more than seventy feet in extent, and three or four 
feet high. There are several of which the entrance is 
very narrow, and quite closed up with saltpetre. It 
would be dangerous to enter them in summer, for they 
are filled with rattlesnakes, the bite of which is very 
dangerous. Le Sueur saw some of these snakes which 
were six feet in length, but generally they are about 
four feet. They have teeth resembling those of the 
pike, and their gums are full of small vessels in which 
their poison is placed. The Scioux say they take it 
every morning, and cast it away at night. They have 
at the tail a kind of scale which makes a noise, and this 
is called the rattle. 

Le Sueur made on this day seven and a half leagues, 
and passed another river called Hiambouxecate Ouataba, 
or the River of Flat Rock.^ 

On the 15th he crossed a small river, and saw, in 
the neighbourhood, several canoes filled with Indians, 
descending the Mississippi. He supposed they were 

* This is evidently the Inyanbosndata, or Cannon river. 



160 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Scioux, because he could not distinguish whether their 
canoes were large or small. The arms were placed in 
readiness, and soon they heard the cry of the savages, 
which they are accustomed to raise when they rush 
upon their enemies. He caused them to be answered 
in the same manner; and, after having placed all the 
men behind the trees, he ordered them not to fire until 
they were commanded. He remained on shore to see 
what movement the savages would make, and perceiving 
that they placed two on shore, on the other side, where 
from an eminence they could ascertain the strength of 
his forces, he caused the men to pass and repass from 
the shore to the wood, in order to make them believe 
that they were numerous. This ruse succeeded, for^is 
soon as the two descended from the eminence, the chief 
of the party came, bearing the calumet, which is a signal 
of peace among the Indians. 

They said, that never having seen the French navi- 
gate the river with boats like the felucca,^ they had 
supposed them to be English, and for that reason they 
had raised the war cry, and arranged themselves on the 
other side of the Mississippi; but, having recognised 
their flag, they had come without fear to inform them, 
that one of their number, who was crazy, had acci- 
dentally killed a Frenchman, and that they would go 
and bring his comrade, who would tell how the mischief 
had happened. 

The Frenchman they brought was Denis, a Canadian, 
and he reported that his companion was accidentally 
killed. His name was Laplace, a deserting soldier from 
Canada, who had taken refuge in this country. 

^ The felucca is a small vessel had never before been seen on the 
propelled both by oars and sails, and waters of the Upper Mississippi. 



ST. CROIX DROWNED.— RIVER ST. TIERRE. 161 

Le Sueur replied, that Onontio (the name they give 
to all the governors of Canada), being their father and 
his, they ought not to seek justification elsewhere than 
before him; and he advised them to go and see him as 
soon as possible, and beg him to wipe off the blood of 
this Frenchman from their faces. 

The party was composed of forty-seven men of dif- 
ferent nations, who dwell far to the east, about the 
forty-fourth degree of latitude, Le Sueur, discovering 
who the chiefs were, said the kmg whom they had 
spoken of in Canada, had sent him to take possession 
of the north of the river; and that he wished the' 
nations who dwell on it, as well as those under his pro- 
tection, to live in peace. 

He made this day three and three-fourth leagues; 
and, on the 16th of September, he left a large river on 
the east side, named St. Croix, because a Frenchman of 
that name icas shijjwrecjced at its mouth. It comes from 
the north-north-west. Four leagues higher, in going 
up, is found a small lake, at the mouth of which is a 
very large mass of copper. It is on the edge of the 
water, in a small ridge of sandy earth, on the west of 
this lake. 

From the 16th to the 19th, he advanced thirteen and 
three-fourth leagues. After having made from Tamarois 
two hundred and nine and a half leagues, he left the 
navigation of the Mississippi, to enter the river St. 
Pierre,^ on the west side. By the 1st of October, he 

^ The Saint Pierre, like the Saint and prominent in the Indian affairs 

Croix, just below it, was evidently in that age. Carver, in 1776, on 

named after a Frenchman. Charle- the shores of Lake Pepin, discovered 

voix speaks of an officer by that the ruins of an extensive trading 

name, who was at Mackinaw in 1692, post, that had been under the control 
11 



162 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

had made in this river forty-four and one-fourth leagues. 
After he entered into Blue river, thus named on account 
of the mines of blue earth found at its mouth, he founded 
his post, situated in forty-four degrees, thirteen minutes, 
north latitude. He met at this place nine Scioux,^ who 
told him that the river belonged to the Scioux of the 
West, the Ayavois (lowas), and Otoctatas (Ottoes), who 
lived a little farther off; that it was Hot their custom to 
hunt on ground belonging to others, unless invited to 
do so by the owners, and that when they would come 
to the fort to obtain provisions, they would be in danger 
of being killed in ascending or descending the rivers, 
which were narrow, and that if they would show their 
pity, he must establish himself on the Mlssissi^ypi, near the 
mouth of the St. Pierre,^ where the Ayavois, the Otocta- 
tas, and the other Scioux, could go as well as they. 

Having finished their speech, they leaned over the 
head of Le Sueur, according to their custom, crying out, 
" Ouaechissou ouaepanimanabo," that is to say, " Have 
pity upon us." Le Sueur had foreseen that the esta^ 
blishment of Blue Earth river, would not please the 
Scioux of the East, who were, so to speak, masters of the 
other Scioux, and of the nations which will be hereafter 
mentioned, because they were the first with whom trade 
was commenced, and in consequence of which they had 
already quite a number of guns. 

As he had commenced his operations, not only 
with a view to the trade of beaver, but also to gain a 



of a Captain Saint Pierre, and there Lahontan, Le Sueur, and the Jesuits 

is scarcely a doubt that Le Sueur of that period in their relations, and 

named the Minnesota river in honour it has not been altered to Dahkotah 

of his fellow explorer and trader. in this chapter. 

^ Scioux, is the orthography of ^ Neighbourhood of Mendota. 



DAHKOTAHS OF THE PLAINS. 163 

knowledge of the mines, which he had previously dis- 
covered, he told them he was sorry that he had not 
known their intentions sooner; and that it was just, 
• since he came expressly for them, that he should esta- 
blish himself on their land, but that the season was too 
far advanced for him to return. He then made them a 
present of powder, balls, and knives, and an armful of 
tobacco, to entice them to assemble as soon as possible, 
near the fort which he was about to construct, that 
when they should be all assembled he might tell them 
the intention of the king, their and his sovereign. 

The Scioux of the West, according to the statement 
of the Eastern Scioux, have more than a thousand 
lodges. They do not use canoes, nor cultivate the 
earth, nor gather wild rice. They remain generally in 
the prairies, which are between the Upper Mississippi 
and Missouri rivers, and live entirely by the chase. 
The Scioux generally say they have three souls, and 
that after death, that which has done well goes to the 
warm country, that which has done evil to the cold 
regions, and the other guards the body. Polygamy is 
common among them. They are very jealous, and 
sometimes fight in duel for their wives. They manage 
the bow admirably, and have been seen several times to 
kill ducks on the wing. They make their lodges of a 
number of buffalo skins interlaced and sewed, and carry 
them wherever the}^ go. They are all great smokers, 
but their manner of smoking differs from that of other 
Indians. There are some Scioux who swallow all the 
smoke of the tobacco, and others who, after having kept 
it some time in their mouth, cause it to issue from the 
nose. In each lodge there are usually two or three 
men with their families. 



164 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

On the third of October, they received at the fort 
several Scioux, among whom was Wahkantape, chief 
of the village. Soon two Canadians arrived who had 
been huntmg, and had been robbed by the Scioux of 
the East, who had raised their guns against the esta- 
blishment which M. Le Sueur had made on Blue Earth 
river. 

On the fourteenth the fort was finished and named 
Fort L'Huillier,^ and on the twenty-second two Cana- 
dians were sent out to invite the Ayavois and Otoctatas 
to come and establish a village near the fort, because 
these Indians are industrious and accustomed to culti- 
vate the earth, and they hoped to get provisions from 
them, and to make them work in the mines. 

On the twenty-fourth, six Scioux Oujalespoitons 
wished to go into the fort, but were told that they did 
not receive men who had killed Frenchmen. This is 
the term used when they have insulted them. The 
next day they came to the lodge of Le Sueur to beg 
him to have pity on them. They wished, according to 
custom, to weep over his head and make him a present 
of packs of beavers, which he refused. He told them 
he was surprised that people who had robbed .should 
come to him ; to which they replied that they had heard 
it said that two Frenchmen had been robbed, but none 
from their village had been present at that wicked 
action. 

Le Sueur answered, that he knew it was the Men- 
deoucantons and not the Oujalespoitons; "but," con- 
tinued he, " you are Scioux ; it is the Scioux who have 
robbed me, and if I were to follow your manner oi 

^ The farmer general at Paris who had encouraged Le Sueur in his pro- 
jects. 



LE SUEUR FILLS CANOES WITH BLUE EARTH. 165 

acting, I should break your heads ; for is it not true, 
that when a stranger (it is thus they call the Indians 
who are not Scioux) has insulted a Scioux, Mendeou- 
canton, Oujalespoitons, or others — all the villages re- 
venge upon the first one they meet ?" 

As they had nothing to answer to what he said to 
them, they wept and repeated, according to custom, 
" Ouaechissou ! ouaepanimanabo !" Le Sueur told them 
to cease crjdng, and added, that the French had good 
hearts, and that they had come into the country to have 
pity on them. At the same time he made them a pre- 
sent, saying to them, "Carry back your beavers and 
say to all the Scioux, that they will have from me no 
more powder or lead, and they will no longer smoke 
any long pipe until they have made satisfaction for rob- 
bing the Frenchman." 

The same day the Canadians, who had been sent off 
on the 2 2d, arrived without having found the road 
Avhich led to the Ayavois and Otoctatas. On the 25 th 
Le Sueur went to the river with three canoes, which 
he filled with green and blue earth. ^ It is taken from 
the hills near which are very abundant mines of copper, 
some of which was worked at Paris in 1696 by L'Huil- 
lier, one of the chief collectors of the king. Stones were 
also found there, which would be curious, if worked. 

On the 9 th of November, eight Mantanton Scioux 
arrived, who had been sent by their chiefs to say that 
the Mendeoucantons were still at their lake on the east of 
*lie MississipjA, and they could not come for a long time ; 
and that, for a single village which had no good sense, 

1 The locality was a branch of the river, and on a map published in 
Blue Earth, about a mile above the 1773, the river St. Remi. 
fort, called by Nicollet Le Sueur 



166 HISTORY OF iMIXNESOTA. 

the others ought not to bear the punishment ; and that 
they were willing to make reparation if they knew how. 
Le Sueur replied that he was glad that they had a dis- 
position to do so. 

On the 15th the two Mantanton Scioux, who had 
been sent expressly to say that all of the Scioux of the 
east, and part of those of the west, were joined together 
to come to the French, because they had heard that the 
Christianaux and the Assinipoils were making war on 
them. These two nations dwell above the fort on the 
east side, more than eighty leagues on the Upper Mis- 
sissippi. 

The Assinipoils speak Scioux, and are certainly of 
that nation. It is only a few years since that they be- 
came enemies. The enmity thus originated : The Chris- 
tianaux, having the use of arms before the Scioux, 
through the English at Hudson's Bay, they constantly 
warred upon the Assinipoils, who were their nearest 
neighbours. The latter, being weak, sued for peace, 
and to render it more lasting, married the Christianaux 
women. The other Scioux, who had not made the com- 
pact, continued the war ; and, seeing some Christianaux 
with the Assinipoils, broke their heads. The Chris- 
tianaux furnished the Assinipoils with arms and mer- 
chandise. 

On the 16th the Scioux returned to their village, and 
it was reported that the Ayavois and Otoctatas were 
gone to establish themselves towards the Missouri river, 
near the Maha, who dwell in that region. On the 26th 
the Mantantons and Oujalespoitons arrived at the fort; 
and, after they had encamped in the woods, Wahkan- 
tape^ came to beg Le Sueur to go to his lodge. He 

^ Wakandapi or Esteemed Sacred, was the name of one of the head men 
at Red Wing, in 1850. 



WEEP OVER THE DEATH OF TEEOSKAIITAY. 107 

there found sixteen men with women and childrei:, 
with their faces daubed with black. In the m.iddle of 
the lodge were several buffiilo skins, which were sewed 
for a carpet. After motioning him to sit down, the} 
wept for the fourth of an hour, and the chief gave him 
some wild rice to eat (as was their custom), putting the 
first three spoonsful to his mouth. After which, he said 
all present were relatives of Tioscate/ whom Le Sueur 
took to Canada in 1695, and who died there in 1696. 

At the mention of Tioscate they began to weep again, 
and wipe their tears and heads upon the shoulders of 
Le Sueur. Then Wahkantape again spoke, and said that 
Tioscate begged him to forget the insult done to the 
Frenchmen by the Mendeoucantons, and take pity on 
his brethren by giving them powder and balls whereb}' 
they could defend themselves, and gain a living for their 
wives and children, who languish in a country, full of 
game, because they had not the means of killing them. 
" Look," added the chief, " Behold thy children, thy 
brethren, and thy sisters ; it is to thee to see whether 
thou wdshest them to die. They will live if thou gives t 
them powder and ball ; they will die if thou refusest." 

Le Sueur granted them their request, but as the 
Scioux never answer on the spot, especially in matters 
of importance, and as he had to speak to them about 
his establishment, he went out of the lodge without 
saying a word. The chief and all those within followed 
him as far as the door of the fort ; and when he had 
gone in, they went around it three times, crying with 
all their strength, " Atheouanan !" that is to say, 
" Father, have pity on us." (Ate unyanpi, means Our 
Father.) 

^ Teeoskahtay. 



1G8 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

The next day, he assembled in the fort the principal 
men of botlj villages ; and as it is not possible to subdue 
the Scioux or to hinder them from going to war, unless 
it be by inducing them to cultivate the earth, he said to 
them that if they wished to render themselves worthy 
of the protection of the king, the}^ must abandon their 
erring life, and form a village near his dwelling, where 
they would be shielded from the insults of their ene- 
mies ; and that they might be happy and not hungry, 
he would give them all the corn necessary to plant a 
large piece of ground ; that the king, their and his chief, 
in sending him, had forbidden him to purchase beaver 
skins, knowing that this kind of hunting separates them 
and exposes them to their enemies ; and that in conse- 
quence of this he had come to estabUsh himself on Blue 
river and vicinity, where they had many times assured 
him were many kinds of beasts, for the skins of which 
he would give them all things necessary; that they 
ought to reflect that they could not do without French 
goods, and that the only way not to want them was, not 
to go to war with our allied nations. 

As it is customary w4th the Indians to accompany 
their w^ord with a present proportioned to the affair 
treated of, he gave them fift}^ pounds of pow^der, as many 
balls, six guns, ten axes, twelve armsful of tobacco, and 
a hatchet pipe. 

On the first of December, the Mantantons in^dted Le 
Sueur to a great feast. Of four of their lodges they 
had made one, in which were one hundred men seated 
around, and every one his dish before him. After the 
meal, Wahkantape, the chief, made them all smoke one 
after another in the hatchet pipe w^hich had been given 
them. He then made a present to Le Sueur of a slave 



M'DEWAKANTONWAN CHIEFS AT BLUE EARTH FORT. 169 

and a sack of wild rice, and said to him, showing him 
his men : " Behold the remains of this great village, 
which thou hast aforetimes seen so numerous ! all the 
others have been killed in war ; and the few men whom 
thou seest in this lodge, accept the present thou hast 
made them, and are resolved to obey the great chief of 
all nations, of whom thou hast spoken to us. Thou 
oughtest not to regard us as Scioux, but as French, and 
instead of saying the Scioux are miserable, and have no 
mind, and are fit for nothing but to rob and steal from 
the French, thou shalt say my brethren are miserable 
and have no mind, and we must try to j)rocure some for 
them. They rob us, but I will take care that they do 
not lack iron, that is to say, all kinds of goods. If 
thou dost this, I assure thee that in a little time, the 
Mantantons will become Frenchmen, and they will have 
none of those vices with which thou reproachest us." 

Having finished his speech, he covered his face with 
his garment, and the others imitated him. They wept 
over their companions who had died in war, and chanted 
an adieu to their country in a tone so gloomy, that one 
could not keep from partaking of their sorrow. 

Wahkantape then made them smoke again, and dis- 
tributed the presents, and said that he was going to the 
Mendeoucantons, to inform them of the resolution, and 
invite them to do the same. 

On the twelfth, three Mendeoucanton chiefs and a 
large number of Indians of the same village, arrived at 
the fort, and the next day gave satisfaction for robbing 
the Frenchmen. They brought 400 pounds of beaver 
skins, and promised that the summer following, after 
their canoes were built and they had gathered their wild 
rice, that they would come and establish themselves 



IVO HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

near the French. The same day they returned to their 

village east of the Mississippi. 

NAMES OF THE BANDS OF SCIOUX OF THE EAST, WITH THEIR 
SIGNIFICATION. 

Mantantons — That is to say, Village of the Great 
Lake which empties into a small one. 

Mendeoucantons — Village of Spirit Lake. 

QuioPETONS — Village of the Lake with one River. 

PsiouMANiTONS — Village of Wild Rice Gatherers. 

OuADEBATONS. — The Rivcr Village. 

OuATEMANETONS. — Village of the Tribe who dwell on 
the Point of the Lake. 

SoNGASQUiTONS — The Brave Village. 

THE SCIOUX OF THE WEST. 

ToucHOUASiNTONS — The Village of the Pole. 

PsiNCHATONS — Village of the Red Wild Rice. 

OujALESPOiTONS — Village divided into many small 
Bands. 

PsiNOUTANHHiNTONS — The Great Wild Rice Village. 

TiNTANGAOUGHiATONS — The Grand Lodge Village. 

OuAPETONS — Village of the Leaf. 

OuGHETGEODATONS — Dung Village. 

OuAPETONTETONS — Village of those who Shoot in the 
Large Pine, 

HiNHANETONS — Village of the Red Stone Quarry. 

The above catalogue of villages concludes the extract 
that La Harpe has made from Le Sueur's Journal.^ 

^ The "History of Louisiana, by nal, and deposited among the ar- 

La Harpe," who was a French offi- chives of the American Philosophi- 

cer, remained in manuscript more cal Society, from which a few ex- 

than one hundred years. In 1805, tracts were published by Professor 

a copy was taken from the origi- Keating, in his narrative of Major 



D'IBERVILLE'S MANUSCRIPT. 171 

In the narrative of Major Long's second expedition, 
there are just the same number of villages of the Gens 
du Lac or M'dewakantonwan Scioux mentioned, though 
the names are different. After leaving the Mille Lac 
region, the divisions evidently were different, and the 
villages known by new names. 

Charlevoix, who visited the valley of the Lower Mis- 
sissippi in 1722, says that Le Sueur spent a winter in his 
fort on the banks of the Blue Earth ; and that in the 
follomng April he went up to the mine about a mile 
above. In twenty-two days they obtained more than 
thirty thousand pounds of the substance, four thousand 
of which were selected and sent to France. 

On the tenth of February, 1702, Le Sueur came back 
to the post on the Gulf of Mexico, and found D' Iberville 
absent, who, however, arrived on the eighteenth of the 
next month, with a ship from France, loaded with sup- 
pHes. After a few weeks, the Governor of Louisiana 
sailed again for the old country, Le Sueur being a fellow 
passenger. 

On board of the ship, D'Iberville wrote a memorial 
upon the Mississippi Valley, with suggestions for carry- 
ing on commerce therein, which contains many facts 
furnished by Le Sueur. A copy of the manuscript is 
in possession of the Historical Society of Minnesota, 
from which are the following extracts : — 

" If the Sioux remain in their own country they are 
useless to us, being too distant. We could have no 
commerce with them except that of the beaver. M. 

Long's expedition. In the year 1831, tion of that part which pertains to 

the original was published at Paris, Minnesota, appeared in a St. Paul 

for the first time, in the French newspaper in 1850. 
language. The first English transla- 



172 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Le Sueur, who goes to France to give an, account of this 
country, is the proper person to make these movements. 
He estimates the Sioux at four thousand famihes, who 
could settle upon the Missouri. 

" He has spoken to me of another which he calls the 
Malias, composed of more than twelve hundred families, 
the Ayooues (loways) and the Octoctatas their neigh- 
bours, are about three hundred families. They occupy 
the lands between the Mississippi and the Missouri, 
about one hundred leagues from the Illinois. These 
savages do not know the use of arms, and a descent 
might be made upon them in a river, which is beyond 
the Wabash on the west. ********** 

" The Assinibouel, Quenistinos, and people of the 
North, who are upon the rivers which fall into the 
Mississippi, and trade at Fort Nelson (Hudson Bay), 
are about four hundred men. We could prevent them 
from going there if we wish." 

" In four or five years we can establish a commerce 
with these savages of sixty or eighty thousand buffalo 
skins ; more than one hundred deer skins, which will 
produce, delivered in France, more than two million 
four himdred thousand livres yearly. One might obtain 
for a buffalo skin four or five pounds of wool, which 
sells for twenty sous, two pound of coarse hair at ten 
sous. 

" Besides, from smaller peltries, two hundred thou- 
sand livres can be made yearly." 

In the third volume of the " History and Statistics 
of the Indian Tribes," prepared under the direction of 
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, by Mr. Schoolcraft, 
a manuscript, a copy of which is in possession of General 
Cass, is referred to as containing the first enumeration 



EARLIEST CENSUS OF INDIANS OF MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 173 



of the Indians of the Mississippi Valley. The following 
was made thirtj-four years earlier : — 



'The Sioux, , Families, 4,000 

Mahas, 12,000 

Octata and Ayoues, . . . 300 

Canses, (Kansas), . . . 1,500 

Missouri, 1,500 

Arkansas, &c., .... 200 

Manton, (Mandan) ... 100 

Panis, (Pawnee) .... 2,000 
Illinois, of the great village 

andCamaroua (Tamaroa) 800 
Meosigamea, (Metchigamias) 200 

Kikapous and Mascoutens, 450 

Miamis, 500 

Chactas, 4,000 



Chicachas 2,000 

Mobiliens and Chohomes, . 350 

Concaques, (Conchas) . . 2,000 

Oiima, (Houmas) . . . 150 

Colapissa, . . . . . . 250 

Bayogoula, 100 

People of the Fork, ... 200 

Counica, &c., (Tonicas) . 300 

Caensa, (Taensa) . . . 150 

Nadeches, 1,500 

Beiochy, (Biloxi) Pascoboula. 100 



Total 23,850 



"The savage tribes located in the places I have 
marked out, make it necessary to establish three posts 
on the Mississippi. One at the Arkansas, another at 
the Wabash (Ohio), and the third at the Missouri. At 
each post it would be proper to have an officer with a 
detachment of ten soldiers, with a sergeant and corporal. 
All Frenchmen should be allowed to settle there with 
their famihes, and trade with the Indians, and they 
might establish tanneries for properly dressing the 
buffalo and deer skins for transportation. 

" No Frenchman shall he allowed to follow the Indians 
071 thei?' hunts, as it tends to keep them hunters, as is seen 
in Canada, and when they are in the woods they do 
not desire to become tillei's of the soil. ***** 

" I have said nothing in this memoir of which I have 
not personal knowledge or the most rehable sources. 
The most of what I propose is founded upon personal 
reflection, in relation to what might be done for the 
defence and advancement of the colony. * * * * 



114: HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

* * * It will be absolutely necessary that the king 
should define the limits of this country, in relation to 
the government of Canada. It is important that the 
commandant of the Mississippi should have a report of 
those who inhabit the rivers that fall into the Mississippi, 
and principally those of the river Illinois. 

" The Canadians intimate to the savages that they 
ought not to hsten to us, but to the governor of Canada, 
who always speaks to them with large presents ; that 
the governor of the Mississippi is mean, and never 
sends them anything. This is true, and what I cannot 
do. It is imprudent to accustom the savages to be 
spoken to by presents, for, with so many, it would cost 
the king more than the revenue derived from the trade. 
When they come to us, it will be necessary to bring 
them in subjection, make them no presents, and compel 
them to do what we wish, as if they were Frenchmen. 

" The Spaniards have divided the Indians into parties 
on this point, and we can do the same. When one 
nation does wrong, we can cease to trade with them, 
and threaten to draw down the hostility of other 
Indians. We rectify the difficulty by having mission- 
aries, who will bring them into obedience secretly. 

" The Illinois and Mascoutens have detained the 
French canoes they find upon the Mississippi, saying 
that the governors of Canada have given them permis- 
sion. I do not know whether this is so, but, if true, it 
follows that we have not the liberty to send any one 
on the Mississippi. 

" M. Le Sueur would have been taken if he had not 
been the strongest. Only one of the canoes he sent to 
the Sioux was plundered." *****:!= 

On the third of March, 1703, the workmen left at 



RETURN OF WORKMEN FROM MAHKAHTO. 175 

Mahkahto returned to Mobile, having left IVIinnesota 
on account of the hostihty of the Indians, and the want 
of means. 

Le Sueur, on his return from France, does not appear 
to have visited Minnesota. His name appears in the 
history of Louisiana as a leader of expeditions against 
the Natchez and other southern tribes. It is said that 
he died on the road while passing through the colony 
of Louisiana.^ 

1 La Harpe. 



176 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER IX, 

At the commencement of the eighteenth century, the 
Dahkotahs were still dwelling at the Spirit Lake, east 
of the Mississippi; but influences were beginning to 
operate, which eventually led to dislodgment from their 
ancient stronghold. 

When the French traders first visited Green Bay, 
they found the Sauks a fierce and haughty people, 
wandering about the country between the head waters 
of the Fox and Chippeway rivers. Below them, and 
above the Illinois, resided the Fox or Outagami nation,^ 
with whom they were closely alHed by intermarriage. 
The French, from the first, seemed to be unsuccessful 
in obtaining their good-will, the early voyageurs having 
behaved themselves as bandits rather than civihzed men. 

In the year 1700 the Sauks and Foxes were defeated 
in a contest with the Dahkotahs and loways; and 

^ The Ojibways assert that the statement. " The Foxes are eighteen 

Foxes, before their incorporation with leagues from the Sacs, they number 

the Sauks, spoke a different Ian- five hundred men, abound in women 

guage, and they called them " 0-dug- and children, are as industrious as 

aum-eeg," or people of the opposite they can be, and have a different 

side. language from the Ottawas. An 

A French memoir on the Indians Ottawa interpreter would be of no 

"between Lake Erie and Mississippi, use with the Foxes." Paris Doc. 

prepared in 1718, confirms this vii. in N. Y. C. H. vol. ix. 



ATTACK OF FOXES ON DETROIT. 177 

shortly after this they began to manifest open hostility 
against the French. Under the direction of the noted 
warriors Lamina and Pemoussa, they marched to the 
post at Detroit, which was the key to the commerce of 
the npper lakes, with the intention of exterminating 
the small garrison of thirty men, and delivering the 
post to the English, who, from the year 1687, had been 
looking wistfully towards the beautiful peninsula which 
now comprises the commonwealth of Michigan. 

For days they prowled around the rude stockade, 
watching every opportunity for insult and murder. 

To prevent the burning of the post, Du Buisson, the 
commander, ordered the chapel, storehouse, and other 
outbuildings to be destroyed. 

After a few days De Vincennes and eight Frenchmen 
arrived, but brought no news that was cheering ; and 
the commander, in his despatch to the governor of 
Canada, admits his alarm, and writes, " I did not know 
on what saint to call." 

The hour now came for decided action. The gates 
of the little fort were closed ; the garrison divided into 
four companies ; arms and ammunition duly inspected ; 
two swivels, mounted on logs, loaded with slugs; all 
were waiting, with anxious impatience, for the attack 
to commence, when the commander, ascending the 
bastion, descried a friendly force uf Osages, Missouris, 
Illinois, and other allies, issuing from the forest. The 
gates being thrown open, they were warmly greeted. 

A moment's silence, a terrific war-whoop, that made 
the very earth tremble, and the battle began in earnest, 
and murderous missiles flew like hail-stones. To pro- 
tect themselves from the fire of the fort, the Sauks and 
Foxes dug holes in the ground, but they were soon 

12 



178 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

besieged. After being surrounded for nineteen days, 
they succeeded in making their escape, on a dark and 
rainy night, after the attacking party were asleep. The 
discovery was not made till morning, when they were 
found at Presque Isle, near Lake St. Clair. The fight 
was here renewed, and the Foxes were thoroughly de- 
feated, losing about one thousand men, women, and 
children.^ 

Maddened by their want of success, they came back 
with the portion of the Sauks who were their allies to 
their residence in Wisconsin, and revenged themselves 
by scalping every French trader they could find, and 
waging war on the Ojibways and other tribes who had 
aided the French. 

Travel to Louisiana by way of the Wisconsin river 
was entirely cut off; and in 1714 the governor of Ca- 
nada determined to subdue or exterminate them. A 
force of eight hundred men marched to their villages, 
and the Foxes, under the pressure of necessity, formed 
a friendly alliance with their old foes, the Dahkotahs 
of Minnesota. The invading army found the foe, to 
the number of five hundred men and three thousand 
women, strongly intrenched. De Louvigny, the com- 
mander, planted his field pieces and a grenade mortar, 
and began the attack ; but the Foxes soon capitulated, 
and six hostages were given by them as security for the 
presence of their deputies at Montreal, to perfect the 
terms of the treaty. While at Montreal, Pemoussa, the 
great warrior, and others of the hostages, died of small- 
pox. 

Fearing that this calamity might defeat the arrange- 

1 This must be an exaggeration of the French report, from which the 
facts were obtained. 



PREDICTION IN RELATION TO ENGLISH MASTERY. 179 

ments for the final treaty, De Louvigny was sent to 
Mackinaw with one of the hostages, who had recovered 
from the small-pox with the loss of one eje. Arriving 
in May, 1717, he despatched the one-eyed chief with 
suitable presents to cover the dead. The Fox chiefs 
promised to comply with the provisions of the original 
capitulation, and the pock-marked warrior departed for 
Mackinaw, with the interpreter, but he soon eloped, 
and in a little while the truce-breaking Foxes were 
again shedding blood. They not only harassed the 
French, but leagued with the Chickasaws of the south, 
as well as the fierce Dahkotahs of the north. 

For a number of years the French government had 
discountenanced traders dwelling with the Indians west 
of Mackinaw, and the old license system was abolished. 
But, in 1726, it was observed that the English were 
obtaining such an influence over the distant nations, 
that, to counteract it, the licensing of traders to dwell 
among the upper tribes was renewed. 

A despatch on this point, made a prediction, which 
has been fully verified : — 

" From all that precedes, it is more and more obvious, 
that the English are endeavouring to intei^jpe among 
all the Indian nations, and to attach them to them- 
selves. They entertain constantly the idea of becoming 
masters of North America, persuaded that the European 
nation which Avill be possessor of that section, will, in 
course of time, he also master of all America., because it 
is there alone that men live in health, and produce strong 
and robust children." 

To thwart them it was proposed to restore the twenty- 
five licenses for trading, which had been suppressed, by 
which seventy-five " coureurs des bois" would proceed 



180 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

annually to the ujDper tribes, and be absent eighteen 
months ; also, to abolish the prohibitory liquor law, which 
had been enacted through the influence of the mission- 
aries. The argument in favour of this measure was in 
these words : — 

" 'Tis true, that the Indians are crazy when drunk, 
and when they have once tasted brandy, that they give 
all they possess to obtain some more, and drink it to 
excess. 

" Missionaries will complain that this permission de- 
stroys the Indians and the religion among them. But, 
apart from the fact that they will always have rum 
from the Enghsh, the question is, whether it be better 
that the English penetrate into the continent by favour 
of that rum, which attracts the Indians to them, than to 
suffer the French to furnish them with liquor in order 
to preserve these nations, and to prevent them declaring 
eventually in favour of the English."^ 

In view of the troubles among the tribes of the north- 
west, in the month of September, 1718, Captain St. 
Pierre, who had great influence with the Indians of 
Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent with Ensign Linctot 
and some soldiers to re-occupy La Pointe on Lake Supe- 
rior, now Bayfield, in the north-western point of Wis- 
consin. The chiefs of the band there and at Keweenaw, 
had threatened war against the Foxes, who had killed 
some of their number. 

On the seventh of June, 1726, peace was concluded 
by De Lignery with the Sauks, Foxes, and Wiuueba- 
goes, at Green Bay ; and, Linctot, who had succeeded 
Saint Pierre in command at La Pointe, was ordered, by 

^ "Written May 7th, 1726. 



LINCTOT AT LA POINTE. 181 

presents and the promise of a missionary, to endeavour 
to detach the Dahkotahs from their aUiance with the 
Foxes. At this time Linctot made arrangements for 
peace between the Ojibwajs and Dahkotahs, and sent 
two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the latter, 
with a promise that, if they ceased to fight the Ojib- 
ways, they should have regular trade, and a " black 
robe" reside in their country. 

The Ojibways, after the treaty, came down to Mon- 
treal, and were thus addressed by Longeuil,^ the gover- 
nor : — 

" I am rejoiced, my children of the Sauteurs, at the 
peace which Monsieur De Linctot has procured for you 
mth the Sioux, your neighbours, and also on account 
of the prisoners you have restored to them. I desire 
him, in the letter which I now give you, my son Cabina, 
for him, that he maintain this peace, and support the 
happy reunion which now appears to exist between 
the Sioux and you. I hope he will succeed in it, if you 
are attentive to his words, and if you follow the hghts 
which he ^vill show you. 

" My heart is sad on account of the blows which the 
Foxes of Green Bay have given you, of which you have 
just spoken, and of which the commandant has written 
in his letter. It appears to me that Heaven has revenged 
you for your losses, since it has given you the flesh of a 
young Fox to eat. You have done well to listen to the 
words of your commandant to keep quiet, and respect 
the words of your Father. 

" It would not have been good to embroil the whole 
land in order to revenge a blow struck by people with- 

^ The Baron Longeuil, was Charles Le Moyne, a native of Canada. He 
died in 1729. 



182 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

out sense or reason, who have no authority in their own 
villages. 

" I invite you by this tobacco, my children, to remain 
in tranquillity in your lodges, awaiting the news of what 
shall be decided in the council at the bay (Green Bay), 
by the commandant of Mackinaw. 

" There is coming from France a new Father, who will 
not fail to inform you, as soon as he shall be able to take 
measures and stop the bad affair which the Foxes wish 
to cause in future. 

" And to convince you, my children, of the interest 
I take in your loss, here are two blankets, two shirts, 
and two pairs of leggings, to cover the bodies of those 
of your children who have been killed, and to stop the 
blood which has been spilled upon your mats. I add to 
this, four shirts to staunch the wounds of those who 
have been hurt in this miserable affray, with a package 
of tobacco to comfort the minds of your young men, and 
also to cause them to think hereafter of good things, and 
wholly to forget bad ones. 

" This is what I exhort you all, my children, while 
waiting for news from your new Father, and also to be 
always attentive to the words of the French command- 
ant, who now smokes his pipe in security among you." 

The Foxes again proved faithless, having received 
belts from the English, and determined to attack the 
French. The authorities at Quebec now determined to 
send a regular army into their country. Their prepara- 
tions were kept secret; for, says Beauharnois, "they 
already had an assurance of a passage into the country 
of the Sioux of the Prairies, their allies, in such a man- 
ner, that if they had known of our design of maldng 
war, it would have been easy to have withdrawn in 



FRENCH RE ESTABLISHED AT LAKE TEPIN. "iS3 

that direction, before we could block up the way and 
attack them in their towns." 

To hem in the Fox nation as much as possible, Fort 
Perrot, or a site a few miles above, on the shores of 
Lake Pepin, was re-occupied.^ Shortly after the arrival 
of the French, the Indians moved off, and joined the 
Dahkotahs of the Plains, in a war with the Omahaws. 

The governor of Canada felt that the occupancy of 
this post was of vital importance. In a despatch to the 
French government he eloquently urges his views : — 

" The interests of religion, of the service, and of the 
colony are involved in the maintenance of this establish- 
ment, which has been the more necessary as there is no 
doubt but the Foxes, when routed, would have found an 
asylum among the Scioux, hscd not the French been set- 
tled tliere, and the docihty and submission manifested 
by the Foxes cannot be attributed to any cause except 
the attention entertained by the Scioux for the French, 
and the offers which the former made the latter, of 
which the Foxes were fully cognisant. 

" It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these favour- 
able dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes in check, 

1" The fort the French built among Col. D. vol. ix., p. 1016. The fort 

the Scioux on the border of Lake seems to be higher up than Perrot's, 

Pepin, appears to be badly situated and was built by Laperriere. Pike 

on account of the freshets. But the in his journal appears to have this 

Indians assure that the waters rose fort in view, when he says : "Just 

higher in 1727 than it ever did before; below the (point of sand) Pt. de 

and this is credible, inasmuch as it Sable, the French, under Frontenac, 

did not reach the fort this year. * * who had driven the Renards from 

* * * As the waters might possibly the Wisconsin, and chased them up 

rise as high as 1727, this fort could the Mississippi river, built a stockade 

be removed four or five arpents from on this lake (Pepin), as a barrier 

the shore without prejudice to the against the savages. It became a 

views entertained in building it on noted factory for the Sioux." 
its present site. Paris Doc. N. Y. 



184 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

and counteract the measures they might adopt to gain 
over the Scioux, who will invariably reject their propo- 
sitions so long as the French remain in the country, and 
their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all 
these advantages and the importance of preserving that 
establishment, M. de Beauharnois cannot take any 
steps until he has news of the French who asked his 
permission this summer to go up there with a canoe 
load of goods, and until assured that those who wintered 
there have not dismantled the fort, and that the Scioux 
continue in the same sentiments. Besides, it does not 
seem very easy in the present conjuncture, to maintain 
that post, unless there be a solid peace with the Foxes ; 
on the other hand, the greatest portion of the traders, 
who applied in 1727 for the establishment of that post, 
have withdrawn, and will not send thither any more, as 
the rupture with the Foxes, through whose country it 
is necessary to pass in order to reach the Scioux in 
canoe, has led them to abandon the idea. But the one 
and the other case might be remedied. The Foxes will, 
in all probability, come or send next year to sue for 
peace ; therefore, if it be granted to them on advanta- 
geous conditions, there need be no apprehension when 
going to the Scioux, and another company could be 
formed, less numerous than the first, through whom, or 
some responsible merchants able to afford the outfits, a 
new treaty could be made whereby these difficulties 
would be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and 
that is, to send a commanding and sub-officer, and some 
soldiers up there, which are absolutely necessary for the 
maintenance of good order at that post; the mission- 
aries would not go there without a commandant. This 
article, which regards the service, and the expense of 



DE LIGXERY'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE FOXES. 185 

whicli must be on his majesty's account, obliges them to 
apply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their 
power, induce the traders to meet that expense, which 
will possibly amount to 1000 livres or 1500 livres a year 
for the commandant, and in proportion for the officer 
under him ; but, as in the beginning of an establishment 
the expenses exceed the profits, it is improbable that 
any company of merchants will assume the outlay, and 
in this case they demand orders on this point, as well as 
his majesty's opinion as to the necessity of preserving 
so useful a post, and a nation which has already afforded 
proofs of its fidelity and attachment. 

" These orders could be sent them by way of He 
Koyale, or by the first merchantmen that Avill sail for 
Quebec. The time required to receive intelligence of 
the occurrences in the Scioux country, will admit of 
their waiting for these orders before doing anything." 

On the fifth of June, 1728, an army of four hundred 
Frenchmen and eight or nine hundred savages, em- 
barked at Montreal, on an expedition to destroy the 
Fox nation and their allies, the Sauks. De Lignery' 
was the head of the expedition — a man like Braddock 
at Fort Duquesne, who moved his army with precision 
and pomp, as if the savages were accustomed to fight in 
platoons, and observe the laws of war, recognised by all 
civilized nations. 

On the seventeenth of August, in the dead of night, 
the army arrived at the post at the mouth of Fox river. 
Before dawn the French crossed over to the Sauk vil- 
lage, but all had escaped with the exception of four. 
Ascending the stream on the twenty-fourth, they came 

' Taught by experience, he afterwards became an able officer in the 
French Trar. 



186 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

to a Winnebago village wliich was also deserted. Pass- 
ing over tlie Little Fox Lake, on the twenty-fifth, they 
entered a small river leading to marshy ground, on the 
borders of which there was a large Fox village. Here 
again was another disappointment, for the swift-footed 
savages had gone many miles on their trail long before 
the army came in sight. 

Orders were then given to advance upon the last 
stronghold of the enemy, near the portage of the Wis- 
consin, and on their arrival they found all as still as 
the desert. On the return of the army from this fruit- 
less expedition, the Indian villages on the line of march 
were devastated, and the fort at Green Bay abandoned. 
The Foxes, having abandoned everything, retired to the 
country of the loways and Dahkotahs, and probably at 
this time they pitched their tents and hunted in the 
valley of the Sauk river in Minnesota. 

During the year of this badly managed expedition, 
Father Guignas visited the Dahkotahs, and would have 
remained there if there had not been hostility between 
the Foxes and French. While travelling to the Illinois 
country he fell into the hands of the Kickapoos and 
Mascoutens, allies of the Foxes, in the month of October. 
He was saved from being burned to death by an aged 
man adopting him as a son. For five months he was 
in captivity. In the year 1736, while St. Pierre was 
the commander at Lake Pepin, Father Guignas was 
also there, and thought that the Dahkotahs were very 
friendly. 

About the period of the revival of the post on Lake 
Pepin, an establishment was built on Lake Ouinipigon, 
west of Lake Superior. 



VERANDERIE'S TOUR TOWARDS THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 187 

\^eraiiderie, a French officer, was, at this early date, 
commissioned to open a northern route to the Pacific. 

Proceeding westward from the Grand Portage of Lake 
Superior, he followed the chain of lakes which form the 
JDOundary line of Minnesota and British America, to 
Lake Winnipeg. Ascending the Assiniboine, he struck 
out on the plains, and for several days journeyed 
towards the Rocky Mountains. Kahn, the Swedish 
traveller, who saw him in Canada, says that he found 
on the prairies of Rupert's Land, pillars of stone. 

At one place, nine hundred leagues from Montreal, 
he discovered a stone with characters inscribed, which 
the learned at Paris, where it was sent, supposed were 
Tartarean ; but probably it was a pictograph set up by 
some passing war or hunting party. ^ 



^ Stone heaps are seen on the prai- 
ries of Minnesota. Having written 
to a gentleman some years ago, to in- 
quire of the Dahkotahs " what mean 
ye by these stones ?" I received an 
interesting reply : — 

Dear Sir: Tour letter of the third 
instant, relating to the stone heaps 
near Red Wing, was duly received. 

I am happy to comply with your 
request, hoping that it may lead to 
an accurate survey of these mounds. 

In 1848 I first heard of stone heaps 
on the hill-tops, back of Red Wing. 
But business, and the natural suspi- 
cion of the Indian, prevented me 
from exploring. The treaty of Men- 
dota emboldened me to visit the 
hills, and try to find the stone heaps. 
Accordingly, late last autumn, I 
started on foot and alone from Red 
Wing, following the path marked P. 
on the map, which I herewith trans- 



mit. I left the path after crossing 
the second stream, and turning to 
the left, I ascended the first hill that 
I reached. This is about a mile 
distant from the path that leads from 
Fort Snelling to Lake Pepin. Here, 
on the brow of the hill, which was 
about two hundred feet high, was a 
heap of stones. It is about twelve 
feet in diameter and six in height. 
The perfect confusion of the stones 
and yet the entireness of the heap, 
and the denuded rocks all around, 
convinced me that the heap had been 
formed from stones lying around, 
picked up by the hand of man. 

But why and when it had been 
done, were questions not so easily 
decided. For solving these I re- 
solved to seek internal evidence. 
Prompted by the spirit of a first 
explorer, I soon ascended the heap ; 
and the coldness of the day, and the 



18S 



HISTORY OF MKNESOTA. 



He established some six commercial posts on the line 
of his route, some of which are in existence to this day, 
and bear the same names. 

His journey was ended by difficulties with the Indi- 
ans, and he was obliged to return. 

The Dahkotahs were suspected of having molested 
this expedition. The king of France, writing to the 



proximity of my gun, tended to sup- 
press my dread of rattlesnakes. 
The stones were such that I could 
lift, or rollthem, and soon reached 
a stick about two feet from the top 
of the heap. After descending about 
a foot further, I pulled the post out ; 
and about the same place found a 
shank bone, about five inches long. 
The post was red cedar half decayed, 
/. e. one side, and rotted to a point 
in the ground; hence I could not 
tell whether it grew there or not. 
The bone is similar to the two which 
you have. I left it and the post on 
the heap, hoping that some one 
better skilled in osteology might 
visit the heap. The stones of the 
heap are magnesian limestone, which 
forms the upper stratum of the hills 
about Red Wing. 

Much pleased, I started over the 
hill top, and was soon greeted by an- 
other silent monument of art. This 
heap is marked B. on the map. It is 
similar to the first which is marked 
A., only it is larger, and was so co- 
vered with a vine, that I had no suc- 
cess in opening it. From this point 
there is a fine view southward. The 
valleys and hills are delightful. Such 
hills and vales, such cairns and bushy 
glens, would, in my father's land,have 



been the thrones and playgrounds of 
fairies. But I must stick to facts. I 
now started eastward to visit a coni- 
cal appearing hill, distant about a 
mile and a half. I easily descended 
the hill, but to cross the plain and 
ascend another \\\\\y" hie labor est." 
But I was amply repaid. The hill 
proved to be a ridge with several stone 
heaps on the summit. Near one heap 
there is a beautiful little tree with a 
top like " Tam O'Shanter's" bonnet. 
In these heaps I found the bones 
which I left with you. I discovered 
each about half-way down the heaps. 

I then descended northward about 
two hundred feet, crossed a valley, 
passed some earth mounds, and as- 
cended another hill, and there found 
several more stone heaps similar to 
the others. In them I found no 
bones, nor did I see anything else 
worthy of particular notice at pre- 
sent. 

If these facts should, in any mea- 
sure, help to preserve correct infor- 
mation concerning any part of this 
new country, I shall be amply re- 
warded for writing. 

Your obedient servant, 

J. F. AlTON. 

Kaposia, Jan. 17, 1852. 



FINAL ATTACK ON THE FOXES. 189 

governor of Canada, under date of May tenth, 1737, 
says : — 

*• As respects the Scioux, according to what the com- 
mandant^ and missionary^ have written to Sieur de 
Beauharnois, relative to the disposition of these Indians, 
nothing appears to be wanting on that point. But their 
delay in coming down to Montreal since the time they 
promised to do so, must render their sentiments some- 
what suspected, and nothing but facts can determine 
whether their fidelity can be absolutely relied on. But 
what must still further increase the uneasiness to be 
entertained in their regard, is the attack on the convoy 
of M. de la Veranderie." 

The Foxes having killed some Frenchmen in the 
Illinois country, in 1741, the governor of Canada, Mar- 
quis de Beauharnois, assembled at his house, some of 
the most experienced officers in the Indian service, the 
Baron de Longeuil, La Come, De Lignery, and others, 
and it was unanimously agreed, that the welfare of the 
French demanded the complete extermination of the 
Foxes, and that the movements against them should be 
conducted with the greatest caution. 

Louis XV. was glad to hear of the determination of 
the governor of Canada, but he was afraid that it would 
not be conducted with sufficient secrecy. He, with great 
discernment, remarks, " If they foresee their inability to 
resist, they will have adopted the poHcy of retreating 
to the Scioux of the Prairies, from which point they will 
cause more disorder, in the colony, than if they had 
been allowed to remain quiet in their village." 

The officer in charge of tho incursion, was Moran,' 

^ Saint Pierre. * Guignas. 

' Probably Sieur Marin, of the French Documents. 



190 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

who once had charge of the post St. Nicholas near the 
mouth of the Wisconsin, on the Mississippi. His 
strategy was not unlike that of the besiegers of ancient 
Troy. At that time the Fox tribe lived at the Little 
Butte des Morts, on the Fox river of Wisconsin. When- 
ever a trader's canoe hove in sight, they lighted a torch 
upon the bank, which was a signal for Frenchmen to 
land, and pay for the privilege of using the stream. 

Moran having placed his men in canoes, with their 
guns primed, had each canoe covered with canvas, as 
if he was bringing into the country an outfit of mer- 
chandise, and desired to protect it from storms. When 
near Little Butte des Morts the party was divided, a 
portion proceeding by land to the rear of the Fox vil- 
lage, and the remainder moving up the stream. 

The oarsmen having paddled the canoes within view 
of the Foxes, they, accordmg to custom, planted the 
torch, suf)posing it was a trader's " brigade."^ 

Curiosity brought men, women, and children to the 
river's bank, and as they gazed, the canoes were suddenly 
uncovered, and the discharge of a swivel, and volleys 
of musketry, were the presents received. Before they 
could recover from their consternation, they received 
" a fire in the rear" from the land party, and many 
were killed. The remnant retreated to the Wisconsin, 
twenty-one miles from Prairie du Chien, where, the 
next season Moran and his troops, on snow shoes, sur- 
prised them while they were engaged in a game, and 
slew nearly the whole settlement.^ 

During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan visited 

' In the North-West a collection Recollections. Vol. iii., Wis. His. 
of traders' canoes is called a brigade. Soc. Col. 
''' Snelling's North-West, Grignon's 



LUSIGNAN VISITS THE DAHKOTAHS. 191 

the Dahkotahs, ordered by government to hunt up the 
"coureurs des bois," and withdraw them from the 
country. They started to return with him, but learn- 
ing that they would be arrested at Mackinaw, for viola- 
tion of law, they ran away. While at the villages of 
the Dahkotahs of the lakes and plains, the chiefs 
brought to this officer nineteen of their 3'oung men, 
bound with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen at 
the Illinois. While he remained with them they made 
peace with the Ojibways of La Pointe, with whom they 
had been at war for some time. ,0n his return, four 
chiefs accompanied him to Montreal, to solicit pardon 
for their young braves. 

The lessees of the trading post lost many of their 
peltries that winter, in consequence of a fire. 

English influence produced increasing dissatisfaction 
among the Indians that were beyond Mackinaw. Not 
only were voj^ageurs robbed and maltreated at Sault St. 
Marie, and other points on Lake Superior, but even the 
commandant at Mackinaw was exposed to insolence, and 
there was no security anywhere. The Marquis de 
Beauharnois determined to send St. Pierre to the scene 
of disorder. In the language of a document of the day, 
he was " a very good officer, much esteemed among 
all the nations of those parts — none more loved and 
feared." 

On his arrival, the savages were so cross, that he 
advised that no Frenchman should come to trade. 

By promptness and boldness, he secured the Indians 
who had murdered some Frenchmen, and obtained the 
respect of the tribes. 

While the three murderers were being conveyed in a 
canoe down the St. Lawrence to Quebec, in charge of a 



192 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

sergeant and seven soldiers, the savages, with character- 
istic cunning, though manacled, succeeded in killing or 
drowning the guard. Cutting their irons with an axe, 
they sought the woods, and escaped to their own 
country. 

" Thus," writes Galassoniere, in 1748, to Count Mau- 
repas, "was lost in a great measure the fruit of Sieur 
St. Pierre's good management, and of all the fatigue I 
endured to get the nations who surrendered these 
rascals to listen to reason." 



INDIAN ENLISTMENT.— FRENCH WAR. 193 



CHAPTER X. 

Canada was now fairly involved in the war with 
New York and the New England colonies. The Home 
Governments were anxious lookers on, for momentous 
issues depended upon the failure or success of either 
party. 

The French knew that they must enlist the Upper 
Indians on their side, or lose Detroit, Mackinaw, and 
indeed all the keys of the valley of the Mississippi, and 
the region of the lakes. They, therefore, sent officers 
with presents to Mackinaw, to induce the tribes of the 
far West to unite with them in expelling the English. 

It was impossible to form regiments of the North 
American savages, as the French of modern days have 
done in Algeria, or as the British with the Sepoys. 

Indians can never be made to move in platoons. 
From youth they have marched in single file, and have 
only answered to the call of their inclinations, and over 
them their chiefs have not the slightest authority. To 
their capricious natures enlistment for a fixed time is 
repugnant. At the same time, under the guidance of 
colonial officers who humoured them in their whims, 
they frequently rendered efficient service. They were 
conversant with the recesses of the forest, and walked 
through the tangled wilderness with the same ease that 

13 



194 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

the French military officers promenaded the gardens of 
Paris. They discovered the trail of men with the 
instinct that their dogs scented the tracks of wild 
beasts. Adroit in an attack, they would also, amid a 
shower of musket balls, feel for the scalp of an enemy. 

With such alhes it is no wonder that New England 
mothers and delicate maidens turned pale when they 
heard that the French were coming.^ 

On the twenty-third of August, 1747, Philip Le Due 
arrived at Mackinaw from Lake Superior, stating that 
he had been robbed of his goods at Kamanistigoya,^ and 
that the Ojibways of the lake were favourably disposed 
toward the Enghsh. The Dahkotahs were also becom- 
ing unruly in the absence of French officers. 

In the few weeks after Le Due's robbery, St. Pierre 
left Montreal to become commandant at Mackinaw, and 
Vercheres was appointed for the post at Green Bay. 

On the twenty-first of June of the next year, La 
Ronde started for La Pointe, and La Yeranderie for 
West Sea^ — Fond du Lac, Minnesota. 

For several years tli^re was constant dissatisfaction 
among the Indians, but under the influence of Sieur 
Marin, who was in command at Green Bay in 1753, 
tranquilhty was in a measure restored. 

^ The following are some of the Aug. 6, 40 Ottawas of the Fork, 

arrivals in a few weeks at Montreal, " 10, 65 Mississagues. 

in 1746. July 23—31 Ottawas of " " 80 Algonkins and Nepis- 

Detroit. sings. 

July 31, 16 FoUes Avoines for war. " " 14 Sauteurs. 

" " 14Kiskakons " " " 22, 38 Ottawas of Detroit. 

" " 4 Scioux, to ask for a " " 17 Sauteurs 

commandant. " " 24 Hurons. 

Aug. 2, 50 Pottowattamiesforwar. " " 14 Poutewatamis. 

" " 15 Puans " " ^ pjgeon river, part of northern 

" " 10 Illinois " " boundary of Minnesota. 

" 6, 50 Ottawas of Mackinaw. ' Carver's map calls it "West Bay. 



BRADDOCK'S DEFEAT.— ST. PIERRE'S DEATH. 195 

As the war between England and France, in America 
became desperate, the officers of the north-western posts 
were called into action, and stationed nearer the enemy. 

Legardeur de St. Pierre, whose name it is thought 
was formerly attached to the river from which the state 
of Minnesota derives its name, was in command of a 
rude post in Erie county, Pennsylvania, in December, 
1753, and to him Washington, then just entering upon 
manhood, bore a letter from Governor Dinwiddle of 
Virginia.^ 

On the ninth of July, 1755, Beaujeu and De Lignery, 
who had pursued so unsuccessfully the Foxes, in the 
valley of the Wisconsin, in 1728, were at Fort Duquesne, 
and marched out of the fort with soldiers, Canadians, 
and Indians, to seek an ambush, but about noon, before 
reaching the desired spot, they met the enemy under 
Braddock, who discharged a galling fire from their artil- 
lery, by which Beaujeu was killed. The sequel, which 
led to the memorable defeat of Braddock, is familiar to 
all who have read the life of Washington. 

Under Baron Dieskaw, St. Pierre commanded the 
Indians, in September, 1755, during the campaign on 
Lake Champlain, where he fell gallantly fighting the 
English, as did his commander. The Reverend Claude 
Cocquard, alluding to the French defeat, in a letter to 
his brother, remarks : — 

" We lost, on that occasion, a brave officer, M. de St. 
Pierre, and had his advice, as well as that of several 
other Canadian officers been followed, Jonckson^ was 
irretrievably destroyed, and we should have been spared 
the trouble we have had this year." 

' St. Pien-e's reply -was manly and dignified. See Pennsylvania Colo- 
nial Records, v. 715. 
^ Johnson. 



196 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Other officers wlio had been stationed on the borders 
of Minnesota, also distinguished themselves during the 
French war. The Marquis Montcalm, in camp at Ticon- 
deroga, on the twenty-seventh of July, 1757, writes to 
Vaudreuil, Governor of Canada. 

" Lieutenant Marin, of the Colonial troops, who has 
exhibited a rare audacity, did not consider himself 
bound to halt, although his detachment of about four 
hundred men was reduced to about two hundred, the 
balance having been sent back on account of inability 
to follow. He carried off a patrol of ten men, and 
swept away an ordinary guard of fifty, like a wafer ; 
went up to the enemy's camp, under Fort Lydius 
(Edward), where he was exposed to a severe fire, and 
retreated like a warrior. He was unwilHng to amuse 
himself making prisoners ; he brought in only one, and 
thirty-two scalps, and must have killed many men of 
the enemy, in the midst of whose ranks it was neither 
wise nor prudent to go in search of scalps. The Indians 
generally all behaved well. ****** The Outaouais, 
who arrived with me, and whom I designed to go on a 
scouting party towards the lake, had conceived a pro- 
ject of administering a corrective to the English barges. 
* * * * On the day before yesterday, your brother 
formed a detachment to accompany them. I arrived at 
his camp on the evening of the same day. Lieutenant 
de Corbiere, of Colonial troops, was returning in conse- 
quence of a misunderstanding, and as I knew the zeal 
and intelligence of that officer, I made him set out with 
a new instruction to rejoin Messrs. de Langlade ^ and 
Hertel de Chantly. They remained in ambush all day 

^ This officer has relatives ia Wis- his life is in Grignon's Recollections, 
consin, and an interesting sketch of Wis. Hist. Soc. Collections, vol. iii. 



lOWAYS AT TICONDEROGA. 



197 



and night yesterday; at break of day the English 
appeared on Lake St. Sacrament (Champlain), to the 
number of twenty-two barges, under the command of 
Sieur Parker. The whoops of our Indians impressed 
them with such terror that they made but feeble resist- 
ance, and only two barges escaped." 

After De Corbiere's victory on Lake Champlain, a 
large French army was collected at Ticonderoga, with 
which there were many Indians from the tribes of the 
North-west,^ and the loways appeared for the first time 
in the east. 

It is an interesting fact that the English ofiicers who 



'■ INDIANS OF THE UPPER COUNTRY. 

Tetes de Boule 3 

Outaouais Kiskakons 94 

" Sinagos 35 

of the Forks 70 

" of Mignogan 10 

" of Beaver Island 44 

of Detroit 30 

" of Saginau 54 

Sauteurs of Chagoamigon 33 

of Beaver 23 

*' of Coasekimagen 14 

of the Carp 37 

ofCabibonkfe 50 

Poutouatamis of St. Joseph 70 

of Detroit 18 

Folles Avoines of Orignal 62 

of the Chat 67 

Miamis 15 

Puans of the Bay 48 

Ayeouais (loways) 10 

Foxes 20 

Ouillas 10 

Sacs 33 

Loups 5 



De Langlade. 
Florimont. 
Herbin. 
Abbe Matavet. 
Sulpitian. 



La Plante. 
De Lorimer. 
Chesne, Interpreter. 



De Tailly, Interpreter. 

Marin, Langus. 
Eeaume, Interpreter. 



198 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

were in frequent engagements with St. Pierre, Lusig-nan, 
Marin, Langlade, and others, became the pioneers of the 
British, a few years afterwards, in the occupation of the 
outposts on the Lakes, and in the exploration of Minne- 
sota. 

Rogers, the celebrated captain of rangers, subse- 
quently commander of Mackinaw, and Jonathan Carver, 
the first British explorer of Minnesota, were both on 
duty at Lake Champlain — the latter narrowly escaping 
at the battle of Fort George. 

On Christmas eve, 1757, Rogers approached Fort 
Ticonderoga, to fire the out-houses, but was prevented 
by discharge of the cannons of the French. 

He contented himself with killing fifteen beeves, on 
the horns of one of which he left a laconic and amusing 
note, addressed to the commander of the post.^ 

On the thirteenth of March, 1758, Durantaye, for- 
merly at Mackinaw, had a skirmish with Rogers. Both 
had been trained on the frontier, and they met "as 
Greek met Greek." The conflict was fierce, and the 
French victorious. The Indian allies, finding a scalp 
of a chief underneath an officer's jacket, were furious, 
and took one hundred and fourteen scalps in return. 
When the French returned, they supposed that Captain 
Rogers was among the killed. 

At Quebec, when Montcalm and Wolfe fell, there 
were Ojibways present, assisting the French. 

The Indians, returning from the expeditions against 

^ " I am obliged to you, Sir, for the my compliments to the Marquis du 

repose you have allowed me to take ; Montcalm. Rogers, Commandant 

1 thank you for the fresh meat you Independent Companies." 
have sent me, I request you to present 



ENGLISH AT GREEN BAY.— DAHKOTAH EMBASSY. 199 

the English were attacked with small-pox, and many 
died at Mackinaw. 

On the eighth of September, 1760, the French de- 
livered up all their j)osts in Canada. A few days after 
the capitulation at Montreal, Major Eogers was sent 
with English troops, to garrison the posts of the distant 
North-west. 

On the eighth of September, 1761, a year after the 
surrender, Captain Belfour, of the eightieth regiment 
of the British army, left Detroit, with a detachment, to 
take possession of the French forts at Mackinaw and 
Green Bay. Twenty-five soldiers were left at Macki- 
naw, in command of Lieutenant Leslie, and the rest 
sailed to Green Bay, where they arrived on the twelfth 
of October. The fort had been abandoned for several 
years, and was in a dilapidated condition. In charge 
of it, there was left a lieutenant, a corporal, and fifteen 
soldiers. Two English traders arrived at the same 
time — McKay from Albany, and Goddard from Mon- 
treal. 

On the first of March, 1763, twelve Dahkotah war- 
riors arrived at the fort, and proffered the friendship of 
the nation. They told the English officer, with warmth, 
that if the Ojibways, or other Indians, wished to obstruct 
the passage of the traders coming up, to send them a 
belt, and they would come and cut them ofi", as all 
Indians were their slaves or dogs. They then produced 
a letter written by Penneshaw, a French trader, who 
had been permitted, the year before, to go to their 
country. On the nineteenth of June, Penneshaw re- 
turned from his trading expedition among the Dahko- 
tahs. By his influence the nation was favourabl}- 
affected toward the English. He brought with him a 



200 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



pipe from thenij with a request that traders might be 
sent to them/ 



^ Extracts from the journal of Lt. 
Gorell, an English officer at Green 
Bay, Wis. His. Coll. vol. i. 

" On March 1, 1763, twelve war- 
riors of the Sous came here. It is 
certainly the greatest nation of 
Indians ever yet found. Not above 
two thousand of them were ever 
armed with fire-arms, the rest de- 
pending entirely on bows and arrows, 
which they use with more skill than 
any other Indian nation in America. 
They can shoot the wildest and 
largest beasts in the woods at seventy 
or one hundred yards distant. They 
are remarkable for their dancing, 
and the other nations take the 
fashions from them. * * * * This 
nation is always at war with the 
Chippewas, those who destroyed 
Mishamakinak. They told me with 
warmth that if ever the Chippewas 
or any other Indians wished to ob- 
struct the passage of the traders 
coming up, to send them word, and 
they would come and cut them off 
from the face of the earth, as all 
Indians were their slaves or dogs. 
I told them I was glad to see them, 
and hoped to have a lasting peace 
with them. They then gave me a 
letter wrote in French, and two belts 
of wampum from their king, in which 
he expressed great joy on hearing of 
there being English at his post. The 
letter was written by a French tra- 
der, whom I had allowed to go among 
them last fall, with a promise of his 



behaving well, which he did, better 
than any Canadian I ever knew. * 
* * * With regard to traders, I told 
them I would not allow any to go 
amongst them, as I then understood 
they lay out of the government of 
Canada, but made no doubt they 
would have traders from the Missis- 
sippi in the spring. They went 
away extremely well pleased. 'June 
14th, 1763, the traders came down 
from the Sack country, and confirmed 
the news of Landsing and his son 
being killed by the French. There 
came with the traders some Puans 
and four young men, with one chief 
of the Avoy (loway) nation to de- 
mand traders.' * * * * 

"On the nineteenth, a deputation 
of Winnebagoes, Sacs, Foxes, and Me- 
nominees arrived with a Frenchman 
named Pennensha. This Pennen- 
sha is the same man who wrote the 
letter the Sous brought with them 
in French, and at the same time held 
council with that great nation in 
favour of the English, by which he 
much promoted the interest of the 
latter, as appeared by the behaviour 
of the Sous. He brought with him 
a pipe from the Sous, desiring that 
as the road is now clear, they would 
by no means allow the Chippewas to 
obstruct it, or give the English any 
disturbance, or prevent the traders 
from coming up to them. If they 
did so they would send all their 
warriors and cut them off." 



NO ENGLISH POSTS BEYOND MACKINAW. 201 



CHAPTER XL 

Though the treaty of 1763, made at Versailles, be- 
tween France and England, ceded all the territory 
comprised within the limits of Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota to the latter power, the EngUsh did not for a long 
time obtaui a foothold. 

The French traders having purchased wives from the 
Indian tribes, they managed to preserve a feeling of 
friendship towards their king, long after the trading 
posts at Green Bay and Sault St. Marie had been dis- 
continued. 

The price paid for peltries by those engaged in the 
fur trade at New Orleans, was also higher than that 
which the British could afford to give, so that the 
Indians sought for French goods in exchange for their 
skins. 

Finding it useless to compete with the French of the 
lower Mississippi, the English government established 
no posts of trade or defence beyond Mackinaw. The 
country west of Lake Michigan appears to have been 
trodden by but few British subjects, previous to him 
who forms the subject of the present chapter, and whose 
name has become somewhat famous in consequence of 
his heirs having laid claim to the site of St. Paul, and 
many miles adjacent. 



202 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Jonathan Carver was a native of Connecticut. It has 
been asserted that he was. a lineal descendant of John 
Carver, the first governor of Plymouth colony ; but the 
only definite information that the writer can obtain 
concerning his ancestry is, that his grandfather, William 
Carver, was a native of Wigan, Lancashire, England, 
and a captain in King Wilham's army during the cam- 
paign in Ireland, and for meritorious services received 
an appointment as an officer of the colony of Connecticut. 

His father was a justice of the peace in the new world, 
and in 1732, at Stillwater, or Canterbury, Connecticut, 
the subject of this sketch was born. At the early age 
of fifteen he was called to mourn the death of his father. 
He then commenced the study of medicine, but his 
roving disposition could not bear the confines of a 
doctor's office, and feeling, perhaps, that his genius 
would be cramped by pestle and mortar, at the age of 
eighteen he purchased an ensign's commission in one of 
the regiments Connecticut raised during the French 
war. He was of medium stature, and of strong mind 
and quick perceptions. 

In the year 1757, he was present at the massacre of 
Fort William Henry, and narrowly escaped with his life. 

After the peace of 1763, between France and Eng- 
land, was declared. Carver conceived the project of ex- 
ploring the North-west. Leaving Boston in the month 
of June, 1766, he arrived at Mackinaw, then the most 
distant British post, in the month of August. Having 
obtained a credit on some French and English traders 
from Major Rogers, the officer in command, he started 
with them on the third day of September. Pursuing 
the usual route to Green Bay, they arrived there on 
the eighteenth. 



CARVER'S DESCRIPTION OF PRAIRIE DU CHIEN. 203 

The French fort at that time was standing, though 
much decayed. It was, some years previous to his 
arrival, garrisoned for a short time by an officer and 
thirty EngUsh soldiers, but they having been captured 
by the Menominees, it was abandoned. 

In company with the traders he left Green Bay on 
the twentieth, and ascending Fox river, arrived on the 
twenty-fifth at an island at the east end of Lake Win- 
nebago, containing about fifty acres. 

Here he found a Winnebago village of fifty houses. 
He asserts that a woman was in authority. In the 
month of October the party was at the portage of the 
Wisconsin, and descending that stream, they arrived, 
on the ninth, at a town of the Sauks. While here he 
visited some lead mines about fifteen miles distant. 
An abundance of lead was also seen in the village, that 
had been brought from the mines. 

On the tenth they arrived at the first village of the 
" Ottigaumies" (Foxes), and about five miles before the 
Wisconsin joins the Mississippi, he perceived the rem- 
nants of another village, and learned that it had been 
deserted about thirty years before, and that the inhabit- 
ants, soon after their removal, built a town on the Mis- 
sissippi, near the mouth of the " Ouisconsin," at a place 
called by the French La Prairie les Chiens, which 
signified the Dog Plains. It was a large toAvn, and 
contained about three hundred families. The houses 
were built after the Indian manner, and pleasantly 
situated on a dry rich soil. 

He saw here many horses of a good size and shape. 
This town was the great mart where all the adjacent 
tribes, and where those who inhabit the most remote 
branches of the Mississippi, annually assemble about 



204 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

the latter end of May, bringing with them their furs 
to dispose of to the traders. But it is not always that 
they conclude their sale here. This was determined by 
a general council of the chiefs, who consulted whether it 
would be more conducive to their interest to sell their 
goods at this place, or to carry them on to Louisiana 
or Mackinaw. 

At a small stream called Yellow river, opposite Prairie 
du Cliien, the traders who had thus far accompanied 
Carver took up their residence for the winter. 

From this point he proceeded in a canoe, with a 
Canadian voyageur and a Mohawk Indian, as com- 
panions. 

Just before reaching Lake Pepin, while his attend- 
ants were one day preparing dinner, he walked out and 
was struck with the peculiar appearance of the surface 
of the country, and thought it was the site of some vast 
artificial earth-work. 

It is a fact, worthy of remembrance, that he was the 
first to call the attention of the civilized world to the 
existence of ancient monuments in the Mississippi valley. 
We give his own description : — 

" On the first of November I reached Lake Pepin, a 
few miles below which I landed, and, whilst the ser- 
vants were preparing my dinner, I ascended the bank 
to view the country. I had not proceeded far before I 
came to a fine, level, open j)lain, on which I perceived, 
at a little distance, a partial elevation, that had the 
appearance of entrenchment. On a nearer inspection, 
I had greater reason to suppose that it had really been 
intended for this many centuries ago. Notwithstanding 
it was now covered with grass, I could plainly see that 
it had once been a breast-work of about four feet in 



SUPPOSED EARTH WORKS NEAR LAKE PEPIN. 205 

height, extending the best part of a mile, and sufficiently 
capacious to cover five thousand men. Its form was 
somewhat circular, and its flanks reached to the river. 

'' Though much defaced by time, every angle was 
distinguishable, and appeared as regular and fashioned 
Avith as much military skill as if planned by Yauban 
himself The ditch was not visible ; but I thought, on 
examining more curiously, that I could perceive there 
certainly had been one. From its situation, also, I am 
convinced that it must have been designed for that 
purpose. It fronted the country, and the rear was 
covered by the river, nor was there any rising ground 
for a considerable way that commanded it ; a few 
straororlino; lakes were alone to be seen near it. In 
many places small tracks were worn across it by the 
feet of the elks or deer, and from the depth of the bed 
of earth, by which it was covered, I was able to draw 
certain conclusions of its great antiquity. I examined 
all the angles, and every part with great attention, and 
have often blamed myself since, for not encamping on 
the spot, and drawing an exact plan of it. To show 
that this description is not the offspring of a heated 
imagination, or the chimerical tale of a mistaken travel- 
ler, I find, on inquiry, since my return, that Mons. St. 
Pierre and several traders have, at different times, 
taken notice of similar appearances, upon which they 
have formed the same conjectures, but without exa- 
mining them so minutely as I did. How a work of 
this kind could exist in a country that has hitherto 
(according to the generally received opinion) been the 
seat of war to untutored Indians alone, whose whole 
stock of military knowledge has only, till within two 
centuries, amounted to drawing the bow, and whose 



206 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

only breastwork, even at present, is the thicket, I know 
not. I have given as exact an account as possible of 
this singular appearance, and leave to future explorers, 
of those distant regions, to discover whether it is a pro- 
duction of nature or art. Perhaps the hints I have 
here given, might lead to a more perfect investigation 
of it, and give us very different ideas of the ancient 
state of realms, that we at present believe to have 
been, from the earliest period, only the habitations of 
savages." 

Lake Pepin excited his admiration, as it has that of 
every traveller since his day, and here he remarks : " I 
observed the ruins of a French factory, where it is said 
Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a very great 
trade with the Naudowessies, before the reduction of 
Canada." 

Carver's first acquaintance with the Dahkotahs com- 
menced near the river St. Croix. It would seem that 
the erection of trading posts on Lake Pepin had enticed 
them from their old residence on Rum river and 
Mille Lac. 

He says : " Near the river St. Croix, reside bands of 
the Naudowessie Lidians, called the River Bands. This 
nation is composed at present of eleven bands. They 
were originally twelve, but the Assinipoils, some years 
ago, revolting and separating themselves from the others, 
there remain only at this time eleven. Those I met 
here are termed the River Bands, because they chiefly 
dwell near the banks of this river ; the other eight are 
generally distinguished by the title of Naudowessies of 
the Plains, and inhabit a country more to the westward. 
The name of the former are Nehogatawonahs, the 
Mawtawbauntowahs, and Shashweentowahs. 



CAVE AND BURIAL PLACE NEAR ST. PAUL. 207 

Arriving at what is now a suburb of the capital of 
Minnesota, he continues, "about thirteen miles below 
the Falls of St. Anthony, at which I arrived the tenth 
day after I left Lake Pepin, is a remarkable cave of an 
amazing depth. The Indians term it Wakon-teebe (Wa- 
kan-tipi) . The entrance into it is about ten feet wide, the 
height of it five feet. The arch within is near fifteen feet 
high, and about thirty feet broad ; the bottom consists of 
fme clear sand. About thirty feet from the entrance, 
begins a lake, the water of which is transparent, and ex- 
tends to an unsearchable distance, for the darkness of the 
cave prevents all attempts to acquire a knowledge of it. 
I threw a small pebble towards the interior part of it 
with my utmost strength ; I could hear that it fell into 
the water, and, notwithstanding it was of a small size, 
it caused an astonishing and terrible noise, that reverbe- 
rated through all those gloomy regions. I found in this 
cave many Indian hieroglyphics, which appeared very 
ancient, for time had nearly covered them with moss, 
so that it was with difficulty I could trace them. They 
were cut in a rude manner upon the inside of the wall, 
which was composed of a stone so extremely soft that it 
might be easily penetrated with a knife ; a stone every- 
where to be found near the Mississippi. 

" At a little distance from this dreary cavern, is the 
burying-place of several bands of the Naudowessie 
Indians. Though these people have no fixed residence, 
being in tents, and seldom but a few months in one 
spot, yet they always bring the bones of the dead to 
this place.^ 

^ The cave has been materially and the atmosphere. Years ago the 
altered by neai-ly a century's work top fell in, but on the side walls, not 
of those effective tools, fi'ost, water, covered by debris, pictographs gray 



208 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

" Ten miles below the Falls of St. Anthony, the river 
St. Pierre, called by the natives Wadapaw Menesotor, 
falls into the Mississippi from the west. It is not men- 
tioned by Father Hennepin, though a large, fair river. 
This omission, I consider, must have proceeded from a 
small island (Faribault's), that is situated exactly in its 
entrance." 

When he reached the Minnesota river, the ice became 
so troublesome that he left his canoe in the neighbour- 
hood of what is now the ferry, and walked to St. 
Anthony, in company with a young Winnebago chief, 
who had never seen the curling waters. The chief, on 
reaching the eminence some distance below Cheever's, 
began to invoke his gods, and offer oblations to the 
spirit in the waters. 

" In the middle of the Falls stands a small island, 
about forty feet broad, and somewhat longer, on which 
grow a few cragged hemlock and spruce trees, and about 
half way between this island and the eastern shore, is a 
rock, lying at the very edge of the Falls, in an oblique 
position, that appeared to be about five or six feet broad, 
and thirty or forty long. At a little distance below the 

with age, are visible. In 1807, the It is now walled up and used as a 

present mouth of the cave was so root-house by the owner of the land, 

covered up, that Major Long, to use On the bluff above are numerous 

a vulgarism, was obliged to " creep mounds. Under the supervision of 

on all fours" to enter. In 1820, it the writer, one eighteen feet high and 

seems to have been closed, as School- two hundred and sixty feet in cir- 

craft describes another cave three cumference at the base, was opened 

miles above, as Carver's. Feathers- to the depth of three or four feet, 

tonhaugh made the same mistake. Fragments of skull, which crumbled 

In 1837 Nicollet the astronomer on exposure, and perfect shells of 

and his assistants, worked many human teeth, the interior entirely 

hours and entered the little cavity decayed, were found, 
that remained. 



FALLS OF ST. ANTHONY IN 17GG. 209 

Falls, stands a small island of about an acre and a half, 
on which grow a great number of oak trees." 

From this description, it would appear that the little 
island, now some distance in front of the Falls, was once 
in the very midst, and shows that a constant recession 
has been going on, and that in ages long past, they were 
not far from the Minnesota river. A century hence, if 
the wearing of the last five years is any criterion, the 
Falls will be above the town of St. Anthony. 

No description is more glowing than Carver's, of the 
country adjacent: — 

" The country around them is extremely beautiful. 
It is not an uninterrupted plain, where the eye finds no 
relief, but composed of many gentle ascents, which in 
the summer are covered with the finest verdure, and 
interspersed with little groves that give a pleasing 
variety to the prospect. On the whole, when the Falls 
are included, which may be seen at the distance of four 
miles, a more pleasing and picturesque view I believe 
cannot be found throughout the universe." 

He arrived at the Falls on the seventeenth of Novem- 
ber, 1766, and appears to have ascended as far as Elk 
river. 

On the twenty-fifth of November, he had returned to 
the place opposite the Minnesota, where he had left his 
canoe, and this stream as yet not being obstructed with 
ice, he commenced its ascent, with the colours of Great 
Britain flying at the stern of his canoe. There is no 
doubt that he entered this river, but how far he explored 
it cannot be ascertained. He speaks of the Rapids near 
Shokopay, and asserts that he went as far as two hundred 
miles beyond Mendota. He remarks : — 

" On the seventh of December, I arrived at the utmost 

14 



210 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

extent of my travels towards the West, where I met a 
large party of the Naudowessie Indians, among whom I 
resided some months." 

After speaking of the upper bands of the Dahkotahs 
and their allies, he adds that he " left the habitations 
of the hospitable Indians the latter end of April, 1767, 
but did not part from them for several days, as I was 
accompanied on my journey by near three hundred of 
them to the mouth of the river St. Pierre. At this 
season these bands annually go to the great cave (Day- 
ton's Bluff), before mentioned." 

When he arrived at the great cave, and the Indians 
had deposited the remains of their deceased friends in 
the burial-place that stands adjacent to it, they held 
their great council, to which he was admitted. 

When the Naudowessies brought their dead for inter- 
ment to the great cave (St. Paul), I attempted to get an 
insight into the remaining burial rites, but whether it 
was on account of the stench which arose from so many 
bodies, or whether they chose to keep this part of their 
custom secret from me, I could not discover. I found, 
however, that they considered my curiosity as ill-timed, 
and therefore I withdrew. * * * 

One formality among the Naudowessies in mourning 
for the dead, is very diflerent from any mode I observed 
in the other nations through which I passed. The men, 
to show how great their sorrow is, pierce the flesh of 
their arms above the elbows with arrows, and the 
women cut and gash their legs with sharp broken flints 
till the blood flows very plentifully. * * **:}=** 

After the breath is departed, the body is dressed in 
the same attire it usually wore, his face is painted, and 
he is seated in an erect posture on a mat or skin, placed 



ALLEGED BURIAL SPEECH AT ST. PAUL. 211 

in the middle of the hut, with his weapons by his side. 
His relatives seated around, each harangues in turn the 
deceased ; and, if he has been a great warrior, recounts 
his heroic actions nearly to the following j^urport, which 
in the Indian language is extremely poetical and pleas- 
ing :— 

" You still sit among us, brother, your person retains 
its usual resemblance, and continues similar to ours, 
without any visible deficiency, except it has lost the 
power of action! But whither is that breath flown, 
which a few hours ago sent up smoke to the Great 
Spirit ? Why are those lips silent that lately delivered 
to us expressions and pleasing language? Why are 
those feet motionless that a short time ago were fleeter 
than the deer on yonder mountains ? Why useless 
hang those arms that could cUmb the tallest tree, or 
draw the toughest bow ? Alas ! every part of that frame 
which we lately beheld with admiration and wonder, is 
now become as inanimate as it was three hundred years 
ago ! We will not, however, bemoan thee as if thou 
wast for ever lost to us, or that thy name would be 
buried in oblivion — thy soul yet lives in the great 
country of Spirits with those of thy nation that have 
gone before thee ; and, though we are left behind to 
perpetuate thy fame, we shall one day join thee. 

" Actuated by the respect we bore thee whilst living, 
we now come to tender thee the last act of kindness in 
our power; that thy bod}^ might not lie neglected on 
the plain and become a prey to the beasts of the field 
or fowls of the air, we will take care to lay it with those 
of thy predecessors who have gone before thee ; hoping 
at the same time that thy spirit will feed with their 



212 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

spirits and be ready to receive ours when we shall also 
arrive at the great country of souls." 

For this speech Carver is principally indebted to his 
imagination, but it is well conceived, and suggested one 
of Schiller's poems/ 

It appears from other sources that Carver's visit to 
the Dahkotahs was of some effect in bringing about 
friendly intercourse between them and the commander 
of the English force at Mackinaw. 

The earliest mention of the Dahkotahs, in any public 
British documents that we know of, is in the correspond- 
ence between Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs for the Colony of New York, and General 
Gage, in command of the forces. 

On the eleventh of September, less than six months 
after Carver's speech at Dayton's Bluff, and the de- 
parture of a number of chiefs to the English fort at 
Mackinaw, Johnson writes to General Gage : — " Though 
I wrote to you some days ago, yet I would not mind 
saying something again on the score of the vast expenses 
incurred, and, as I understand, still incurring at Michi- 
limackinac, chiefly on pretence of making a peace 
between the Sioux and Chippeweighs, with which I 
think we have very little to do, in good policy or other- 
wise." 

Sir William Johnson, in a letter to Lord Hillsborough, 
one of his Majesty's ministers, dated August seventeenth, 
1768, again refers to the subject: — 

" Much greater part of those who go a trading are 
men of such circumstances and disposition as to venture 
their persons everywhere for extravagant gains, yet the 

^ For translations of Schiller, see Chapter III. p. 89. 



PROPOSED PACIFIC ROAD. 213 

consequences to the public are not to be slighted; as we 
may be led into a general quarrel through their means. 
The Indians in the part adjacent to Michilimackinac 
have been treated with at a very great expense for some 
time previous. 

" Major Rodgers brings a considerable charge against 
the former for mediating a peace between some tribes 
of the Sioux and some of the Chippeweighs, which, had 
it been attended with success, would only have been 
interesting to a very few French, and others, that had 
goods in that part of the Indian country, but the con- 
trary has happened, and they are now more violent, and 
war against one another." 

Though a wilderness of over one thousand miles inter- 
vened between the Falls of St. Anthony and the white 
settlements of the English, he was fully impressed with 
the idea that the state now organized under the name 
of Minnesota, on account of its beauty and fertility, 
would attract settlers. 

Speaking of the advantages of the country, he says 
that the future population will be " able to convey their 
produce to the seaports with great facility, the current 
of the river from its source to its entrance into the Gulf 
of Mexico, being extremely favourable for doing this in 
small craft. This might also in time he facilitated hy 
canals or shorter cuts, and a communication opened hy 
water loith New York, hy way of the LaJces!' 

The subject of this sketch was also confident that a 
route could be discovered by way of the Minnesota river, 
which '' would open a passage for conveying intelligence 
to China, and the English settlements in the East 
Indies." 

Cars^er, having returned to England, interested Whit- 



214 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

worth, a member of Parliament, in the Northern route. 
Had not the American Revolution commenced, they 
proposed to have built a fort at Lake Pepin, to have 
proceeded up the Minnesota, until they found, as they 
supposed they could, a branch of the Missouri, and from 
thence journeying over the summit of lands, until they 
came to a river which they called Oregon, they expected 
to descend to the Pacific. 

Carver, in common with other travellers, had his 
theory in relation to the origin of the Dahkotahs. He 
supposed that they came from Asia. He remarks, 
" But this might have been at different times and from 
various parts — from Tartary, China, Japan, for the inha- 
bitants of these places resemble each other. * * * * 

" It is very evident that some of the names and cus- 
toms of the American Indians resemble those of the 
Tartars, and I make no doubt but that in some future 
era, and this not very distant, it will be reduced to 
certainty that during some of the wars between the 
Tartars and the Chinese, a part of the inhabitants of 
the northern provinces were driven from their native 
country, and took refuge in some of the isles before 
mentioned, and from thence found their way into Ame- 
rica. ****** 

" Many words are used both by the Chinese and In- 
dians which have a resemblance to each other, not only 
in their sound but in their signification. The Chinese 
call a slave Shungo; and the Naudowessie Indians, 
whose language, from their little intercourse with the 
Europeans, is least corrupted, term a dog Shungush 
(Shoankah). The former denominate our species of 
their tea Shoushong ; the latter call their tobacco Shous- 
as-sau (Chanshasha) . Many other of the words used 



EXAMINATION OF THE CARVER CLAIM. 215 

by the Indians contain the syllables die, chaw, and chu, 
after the dialect of the Chinese." The comparison of 
languages has become a rich source of historical know- 
ledge, yet very many of the analogies traced are fanciful. 
The remark of Humboldt in " Cosmos" is worthy of re- 
membrance : — " As the structure of American idioms 
appears remarkably strange to nations speaking the 
modern languages of Western Europe, and who readily 
suffer themselves to be led away by some accidental 
analogies of sound, theologians have generally be- 
lieved that they could trace an affinity with the 
Hebrew, Spanish colonists Avith the Basque and the 
English, or French settlers with Gaelic, Erse, or the 
Bas Breton. I one day met on the coast of Peru, a 
Spanish naval officer and an English whaling captain, 
the former of whom declared that he had heard Basque 
spoken at Tahiti; the other, Gaelic or Erse at the 
Sandwich Islands.' " 

Carver became very poor while in England, and was 
a clerk in a lottery office. He died in 1780, and left a 
widow, two sons, and five daughters, in New England, 
and also a child b}^ another wife that he had married in 
Great Britain. 

After his death a claim was urged for the land upon 
which the capital of Minnesota now stands, and for 
many miles adjacent. As there are still many persons 
who belie v^e that they have some right through certain 
deeds purporting to be from the heirs of Carver, it is a 
matter worthy of an investigation. 

Carver says nothing in his book of travels in relation 
to a grant from the Dahkotahs, but after he was buried, 
it was asserted that there was a deed belonging to him 
in existence, conveying valuable lands, and that said 



216 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



deed was executed at the cave now in the eastern 
suburbs of Saint Paul/ 

The original deed was never exhibited by the 
assignees of the heirs. By his English wife Carver had 
one child, a daughter Martha, who was cared for by Sir 
Richard and Lady Pearson. In time she eloped and 
married a sailor. A mercantile firm in London, thinking 
that money could be made, induced the newly married 
couple, the day after the wedding, to convey the grant 
to them, with the understanding that they were to have 
a tenth of the profits. 

The merchants despatched an agent by the name of 
Clarke to go to the Dahkotahs, and obtain a new deed ; 
but on his way he was murdered in the State of New 
York. 



' Deed purporting to have been 

given at the cave in the bluff 

BELOW St. Paul. 

" To Jonathan Carver, a Chief 
under the most mighty and potent 
George the Third King of the Eng- 
lish, and other nations, the fame of 
whose warriors has reached our ears, 
and has now been fully told us by 
our good brother Jonathan, aforesaid, 
whom we rejoice to have come among 
us, and bring us good news from his 
country. 

"We, Chiefs of the Naudowessies, 
who have hereunto set our seals, do 
by these presents, for ourselves and 
heirs forever, in return for the aid 
and other good services done by the 
said Jonathan to ourselves and allies, 
give, grant, and convey to him, the 
said Jonathan, and to his heirs and 
assigns forever, the whole of a certain 
tract of territory of land, bounded 



as follows, viz : from the Falls of St. 
Anthony, running on east bank of 
the Mississippi, nearly south-east, 
as far as Lake Pepin, where the 
Chippewa joins the Mississippi, and 
from thence eastward, five days tra- 
vel accounting twenty English miles 
per day, and from thence again to 
the Falls of St. Anthony, on a direct 
straight line. We do for ourselves, 
heirs, and assigns, forever give unto 
the said Jonathan, his heirs and 
assigns, with all the trees, rocks, 
and rivers therein, reserving the sole 
liberty of hunting and fishing on 
land not planted or improved by the 
said Jonathan, his heirs and assigns, 
to which we have affixed our respec- 
tive seals. 

"At the Great Cave, May 1st, 
1767." 

" Signed, Hawnopawjatin. 

Otohtongoomlisheaw. 



CARVER'S CLAIM BEFORE CONGRESS. 217 

In the year 1794, the heirs of Ca.rver's American 
wife, in consideration of fifty thousand pounds sterhng, 
conveyed their interest in the Carver grant to Edward 
Houghton of Vermont. In the year 1806, Samuel 
Peters,^ who had been a tory and an Episcopal minister 
during the Revolutionary war, alleges, in a petition to 
Congress, that he had also purchased of the heirs of 
Carver their rights to the grant. 

Before the Senate Committee, the same year, he 
testified as follows : — 

"In the year 1774, I arrived there (London), and 
met Captain Carver. In 1775, Carver had a hearing 
before the king, praying his majesty's approval of a 
deed of land dated May first, 1767, and sold and granted 
to him by the Naudowissies. The result was his majesty 
approved of the exertions and bravery of Captain Carver 
among the Indian nations, near the Falls of St. Anthony, 
in the Mississippi, gave to said Carver 1373Z. 13s. 8d. 
sterling, and ordered a frigate to be prepared, and a 
transport ship to carry one hundred and fifty men, 
under command of Captain Carver, with four others as 
a committee, to sail next June to New Orleans, and 
then to ascend the Mississippi to take possession of said 
territory conveyed to Captain Carver, but the battle of 
Bunker Hill prevented."^ 

In 1821, General Leavenworth, having made inqui- 
ries of the Dahkotahs, in relation to the alleged claim, 
addressed the following to the commissioner of the land 
office : — 



^ Said to have been the author of the great-grandson of Governor John 

a fictitious work called " Connecticut Carver, the first Chief INtagistrate of 

Blue Laws." Plymouth Colony. 

^ Peters also testified that he was 



2 IS HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

« Sir : — Agreeably to your request, I have the honour 
to inform you what I have understood from the Indians 
of the Sioux Nation, as well as some facts within my 
own knowledge, as to what is commonly termed Car- 
ver's Grant. The grant purports to be made by the 
chiefs of the Sioux of the Plains, and one of the chiefs 
uses the sign of a serpent, and the other a turtle, pur- 
porting that their names are derived from those animals. 

" The land lies on the east side of the Mississippi. 
The Indians do not recognise or acknowledge the grant 
to be valid, and they among others assign the follow- 
ing reasons : — 

" 1. The Sioux of the Plains never owned a foot of 
land on the east side of the Mississippi. The Sioux 
Nation is divided into two grand divisions, viz : The 
Sioux of the Lake, or perhaps more literally Sioux of 
the River, and Sioux of the Plain. The former subsists 
by hunting and fishing, and usually move from place to 
place by water, in canoes, during the summer season, 
and tra,vel on the ice in the winter, when not on their 
hunting excursions. The latter subsist entirely by 
hunting, and have no canoes, nor do they know but 
little about the use of them. They reside in the large 
prairies west of the ]\Iississippi, and follow the buffalo, 
upon which they entirely subsist ; these are called Sioux 
of the Plain, and never owned land east of the Mis- 
sissippi. 

" 2. The Indians say they have no knowledge of any 
such chiefs, as those who have signed the grant to 
Carver, either amongst the Sioux of the River, or Sioux 
of the Plain. They say that if Captain Carver did ever 
obtain a deed or grant, it was signed by some foolish 
young men who were not chiefs, and who were not 



LEAVENWORTH'S LETTER ON THE GRANT. 219 

authorized to make a grant. Among the Sioux of the 
Kiver there are no such names. 

'•' 3. They say the Indians never received anything 
for tlie land, and they have no intention to part with 
it, without a consideration. From my knowledge of 
the Indians, I am induced to think they would not 
make so considerable a grant, and have it go into full 
effect, without receiving a substantial consideration. 

"4. They have, and ever have had, the possession 
of the land, and intend to keep it. I know that they 
are very 2:)articular in making every person who wishes 
to cut timber on that tract, obtain their permission to 
do so, and to obtain payment for it. In the month of 
May last, some Frenchmen brought a large raft of red 
cedar timber out of the Chippewa river, which timber 
was cut on the tract before mentioned. The Indians at 
one of the villages on the Mississippi, where the prin- 
cipal chief resided, compelled the Frenchmen to land 
the raft, and would not permit them to pass until they 
had received pay for the timber ; and the Frenchmen 
were compelled to leave their raft with the Indians 
until they went to Prairie du Chien, and obtained the 
necessary articles, and made the payment required." 

On the twenty-third of January, 1823, the Committee 
of Public Lands made a report on the claim to the 
Senate, which, to every disinterested person, is entirely 
satisfactory. After stating the facts of the petition, the 
report continues : — 

" The Rev. Samuel Peters, in his petition, further 
states that Lefei, the present Emperor of the Sioux and 
Naudowessies, and Red Wing, a Sachem, the heirs and 
successors of the two grand chiefs who signed the said 
deed to Captain Carver, have given satisfactory and 



2-20 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

positive proof, that they allowed their ancestors' deed to 
be genuine, good, and valid, and that Captain Carver's 
heirs and assigns are the owners of said territory, and 
may occupy it free of all molestation. 

" The committee have examined and considered the 
claims thus exhibited by the petitioners, and remark 
that the original deed is not produced, nor any compe- 
tent legal evidence offered, of its execution ; nor is there 
any proof that the persons, whom it is alleged made the 
deed, were the chiefs of said tribe, nor that (if chiefs) 
they had authority to grant and give away the land 
belonging to their tribe. The paper annexed to the 
petition, as a copy of said deed, has no subscribing wit- 
nesses; and it would seem impossible at this remote 
period, to ascertain the important fact, that the persons 
who signed the deed comprehended and understood the 
meaning and effect of their act. 

" The want of proof as to these facts, would interpose 
in the way of the claimants insuperable difficulties. 
But, in the opinion of the committee, the claim is not 
such as the United States are under any obligation to 
allow, even if the deed were proved in legal form. 

" The British government, before the time when the 
alleged deed bears date, had deemed it prudent and 
necessary, for the preservation of peace with the Indian 
tribes under their sovereignty, protection, and dominion, 
to prevent British subjects from purchasing lands from 
the Indians ; and this rule of poUcy was made known 
and enforced by the proclamation of the king of Great 
Britain, of seventh October, 1763, which contains an 
express prohibition. 

" Captain Carver, aware of the law, and knowing that 
such a contract could not vest the legal title in him. 



EEPORT OF SENATE COMMITTEE, 221 

applied to the British government to ratify and confirm 
the Indian grant, and though it was competent for that 
government then to confirm the grant, and vest the title 
of said land in him, yet, from some cause, that govern- 
ment did not think proper to do it. 

'• The territory has since become the property of the 
United States, and an Indian grant, not good against 
the British government, would appear to be not binding 
upon the United States government. 

'•'What benefit the British government derived from 
the services of Captain Carver, by his travels and resi- 
dence among the Indians, that government alone could 
determine, and alone could judge what remuneration 
those services deserved. 

" One fact appears from the declaration of Mr. Peters, 
in his statement in writing, among the papers exhibited, 
namely, that the British government did give Captain 
Carver the sum of one thousand three hundred and 
seventy-five pounds six shillings and eight pence ster- 
ling.^ To the United States, however. Captain Carver 
rendered no services which could be assumed as any 
equitable ground for the support of the petitioners' 
claim. 

" The committee being of opinion that the United 
States are not bound, in law or equity, to confirm the 
said alleged Indian grant, recommend the adoption of 
the following resolution : — 

" ' Resolved, that the prayer of the petitioners ought 
not to be granted." ' 

^ Lord Palmerston stated in 1839, papers, showing any ratification of 
that no trace could be found iu the the Carver grant, 
records of the British office of state 



HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Sustained by French influence and fire-arms, the 
Ojibways began to advance into the Dahkotah country. 
Carver found the two nations at war in 17G6, and was 
told that they had been fighting forty years. Pike, 
when at Leech Lake, in 1806, met an aged Ojibway 
chief, called " Sweet," who said that the Dahkotahs lived 
there when he was a young man. 

Ojibway tradition says that about one hundred and 
twenty-five years ago, a large war party was raised to 
march against a Dahkotah village at Sandy Lake ; the 
leader's name was Biauswah, grandfather of a well 
known chief of that name at Sandy Lake. 

Some years after Sandy Lake had been taken by this 
chief, sixty Ojibways descended the MississijDpi. On 
their return, at the confluence of the Crow Wing and 
Mississippi, they saw traces of a large Dahkotah party 
that had ascended to their village, and probably killed 
their wives and children. Digging holes in the ground 
they concealed themselves, and awaited the descent of 
their enemies. The Dahkotahs soon came floating down, 
singing songs of triumph and beating the drum, with 
scalps dangling from poles. The Dahkotahs were five 
times as many as the Ojibways, but when the latter 



ORIGIN OF THE NAME PILLAGER. 223 

beheld the reeking scalps of then* relatives they were 
nerved to fight with desperation. The battle soon com- 
menced, and when arms and ammunition failed, they 
dug holes near to each other and fought with stones. 
The bravest fought hand to hand with knives and clubs. 
The conflict lasted three days, till the Dahkotahs at last 
retreated. The marks of this battle are still thought to 
be visible. 

The band of Ojibways, living at Leech Lake, have 
long borne the name of " Pillagers," from the fact that, 
while encamped at a small creek on the Mississippi, 
ten miles from Crow Wing river, they robbed a trader 
of his goods. 

Very near the period that France ceded Canada to 
England, the last conflict of the Foxes and Ojibways 
took place at the Falls of the St. Croix. 

The account which the Ojibways give of this battle 
is, that a famous war chief of Lake Superior, whose 
name was Waub-o-jeeg, or White Fisher, sent his war 
club and wampum of war to call the scattered bands of 
the Ojibway tribes, to collect a war party to march 
against the Dahkotah villages on the St. Croix and 
Mississippi. Warriors from St. Marie, Keweenaw, Wis- 
consin, and Grand Portage joined his party, and with 
three hundred warriors, Waub-o-jeeg started from La 
Pointe to march into the enemy's country. He had 
sent his war club to the village of Sandy Lake, and 
they had sent tobacco in return, with answer that on a 
certain day, sixty men from that section of the Ojibway 
tribe would meet him at the confluence of Snake river 
with the St. Croix. On reaching this point on the day 
designated, and the Sandy Lake party not having 
arrived as agreed upon, Waub-o-jeeg, not confident in 



224 HISTORY OP MINNESOTA. 

the strength of his numbers, continued down the St. 
Croix. They arrived at the Falls of St. Croix early in 
the morning, and, while preparing to take their bark 
canoes over the portage, or carrying place, scouts were 
sent in advance to reconnoitre. They soon returned 
with the information that they had discovered a large 
party of Foxes and Dahkotahs landing at the other end 
of the portage. 

The Ojibways instantly prepared for battle, and the 
scouts of the enemy having discovered them, the hostile 
jDarties met as if by mutual appointment, in the middle 
of the portage. The Foxes, after seeing the compara- 
tively small number of the Ojibways, and over confident 
in their own superior numbers and prowess, requested 
the Dahkotahs not to join in the fight, but to sit by and 
see how quickly they could rout the Ojibways. This 
request was granted. The fight between the contend- 
ing warriors, is said to have been fiercely contested, and 
embellished with many daring acts of personal valour. 
About noon the Foxes commenced yielding ground, and 
at last were forced to flee in confusion. They would 
probably have been driven into the river and killed to 
a man, had not their allies the Dahkotahs, who had 
been quietly smoking their pipes and calmly vie^ving 
the fight from a distance, at this juncture, yelled their 
war whoop, and rushed to the rescue of their discomfited 
friends. 

The Ojibways resisted their new enemies manfully, 
and it was not until their ammunition had entirely 
failed that they in turn showed their backs in flight. 
Few would have returned to their lodges to tell the sad 
tale of defeat, and death of brave men, had not the 
party of sixty warriors from Sandy Lake, who Avere to 



DEFEAT OF FOXES AT FALLS OF ST. CROIX. 225 

have joined them at the mouth of Snake river, arrived 
at this opportune moment, and landed at the head of 
the portage. 

Eager for the fight and fresh on the field, this band 
withstood the onset of the Dahkotahs and Foxes, till 
their retreating friends could rally again to the battle. 
The Dahkotahs and Foxes in turn fled, and it is said 
that the slaughter in their ranks was great. Many 
were driven over the rocks into the boiling flood below ; 
and every crevice in the clifls contained a dead or 
wounded enemy. 

From this time the Foxes retired to the south, and 
for ever gave uj) the war with their victorious enemies. 

Tradition says that, while the English had possession 
of what is now Minnesota, 'and while they occupied a 
trading post near the confluence of the waters of the 
Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, the M'de-wa-kan-ton- 
wan Dahkotahs sent the " bundle of tobacco" to their 
friends, the Wa-rpe-ton-wan, Si-si-ton-wan, and I-han- 
kton-wan bands, who joined them in an expedition 
against the Ojibways of Lake Superior. Notwithstand- 
ing the great strength of the party, they found and 
scalped only a single family of their enemies. 

Soon after their return to their own country, a quar- 
rel arose between a M'dewakantonwan named Ixkatape 
(Toy) and their trader. The Indian name of the trader 
was Pagonta, Mallard Duck. The result of the quarrel 
was, that one day as the unsuspecting Englishman sat 
quietly smoking his Indian pipe in his rude hut near 
Mendota, he was shot dead. 

At this time some of the bands of the Dahkotahs had 
learned to depend very much upon the trade for the 
means by which they subsisted themselves. At an 

15 



226 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

earlier period it would have been to them a matter of 
trifling importance whether a white man wintered with 
them or not. 

In consequence of the murder, the trade was tempo- 
rarily withdrawn. This was at that time a severe 
measure, and reduced these bands to sufFermgs which 
they could not well endure. They had no ammunition, 
no traps, no blankets. For the whole long dreary winter, 
they were the sport of cold and famine. That was one 
of the severest winters that the M'dewakantonwans ever 
experienced, and they had not even a pipe of tobacco to 
smoke over their unprecedented misery. They hardly 
survived. 

On the opening of spring, after much deliberation, it 
was determined that the brave and head men of the 
band should take the murderer, and throw themselves 
at the feet of their English Fathers in Canada. Accord- 
ingly, a party of about one hundred of their best men 
and women left Mendota early in the season, and de- 
scended the Mississippi in their canoes to the mouth 
of the Wisconsin. From thence they paddled up the 
Wisconsin, and down the Fox river to Green Bay. By 
this time, however, more than half their number had 
meanly enough deserted them. While they were en- 
camped at Green Bay, all but six, a part of whom were 
females, gave up the enterprise, and disgracefully re- 
turned, bringing the prisoner with them. The courage, 
the bone and sinew of the M'dewakantonwan band 
might have been found in that Uttle remnant of six 
men and women. 

Wapashaw, the grandfather of the present chief who 
bears that name, was the man of that truly heroic little 



WAPASHAW AT MONTREAL. 227 

half-dozen. With strong hearts, and proud perseverance, 
they toiled on till they reached Quebec. 

Wapashaw, placing himself at the head of the little 
deserted band, far from home and friends, assumed the 
guilt of the cowardly murderer, and nobly gave him- 
self up into the hands of justice for the relief of his 
suffering people. 

After they had given him a few blows with the stem 
of the pipe through which Pagonta was smoking when 
he was killed, the English heard Wapashaw with that 
noble generosity which he merited. 

He represented the Dahkotahs as living in seven 
bands, and received a like number of chiefs' medals ; 
one of which was hung about his own neck, and the 
remaining six were to be given, one to each of the chief 
men of the other bands. 

It would be highly gratifying to know who were the 
persons who received those six chiefs' medals; but, 
although not more than one century, at the longest, 
has passed, since Wapashaw's visit to Canada, it cannot 
now be certainly ascertained to which divisions of the 
Dahkotah tribe they belonged ; it seems most probable, 
however, that the following were the seven divisions to 
which Wapashaw referred, viz. : — M'de-wa-kan-ton-wan, 
Wa-rpe-kute, Wa-rpe-ton-wan, Si-si-ton-wan, I-han-kton- 
wan, I-han-kton-wan-nan, and Ti-ton-wan. 

The names of this little band of braves are all lost 
but that of Wapashaw. They wintered in Canada, and 
all had the small-pox. By such means Wapashaw re- 
opened the door of trade, and became richly entitled to 
the appellation of the Benefactor of the Dahkotah tribe. 
Tradition has preserved the name of no greater nor 
better man than Wapashaw. 



228 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Wapashaw did not, however, end his days in peace. 
The vile spirit of the fratricidal Cain sprung up among 
his brothers, and he was driven into exile by their mur- 
derous envy. To their everlasting shame be it recorded, 
that he died far away from the M'dewakantonwan vil- 
lage, on the Hoka river. It is said that the father of 
Wakute was his physician, who attended on him in his 
last illness. The Dahkotahs will never forget the name 
of Wapashaw.^ 

During the war of the Revolution, De Peyster was 
the British officer in command at Mackinaw. Having 
made an alliance with Wapashaw, the chief desired 
that, on his annual visit, he should be received with 
more distinction than the chiefs of other nations. This 
respect was to be exhibited by firing the cannon charged 
with ball, in the place of blank cartridge, on his arrival, 
so that his young warriors might be accustomed to fire- 
arms of large calibre. 

On the sixth of July, 1779, a number of Choctaws, 
Chickasaws, and Ojibways were on a visit to the 
fort, when Wapashaw appeared; and great was their 
astonishment when they beheld balls discharged from 
the cannons of the fort flying over the canoes, and the 
Dahkotah braves lifting their paddles as if to strike 
them, and crying out, " Taya ! taya !" 

De Peyster, who was fond of rhyming, composed a 
rude song, suggested by the scene, which is copied as a 
curiosity : — 

" Hail to the chief! who his buffalo's back straddles, 
When in his own country, far, far, from this fort ; 
Whose brave young canoe-men, here hold up their paddles. 
In hopes, that the whizzing balls, may give them sport. 

1 G. H. Pond. 



EXPEDITION TO PRAIRIE DU CHIEN IN 1780. 229 

Hail to great Wapashaw ! 

He comes, beat drums, the Scioux chief comes. 

" They now strain their nerves till the canoe runs bounding, 
As swift as the Solen goose skims o'er the wave, 
While on the Lake's border, a guard is surrounding 
A space, where to land the Scioux so brave. 
Hail ! to great Wapashaw ! 
Soldiers ! your triggers draw ! 
Guard ! wave the colours, and give him the drum. 
Choctaw and Chickasaw, 
Whoop for great Wapashaw ; 
Raise the portcullis, the King's friend is come.^ 

When the news reached Mackinaw that Colonel 
George R. Clark, in command of Virginia troops, was 
taking possession of the Wabash and Mississippi settle- 
ments, and estabhshing the jurisdiction of Virginia, the 
English traders became uneasy lest the Americans 
should advance to the far North-west. As a precau- 
tionary measure they formed themselves into a militia 
company, of which John McNamara was captain, and 
a trader by the name of J. Long lieutenant. 

In the month of June, 1780, the intelligence was 
received from the Mississippi that the traders had depo- 
sited their furs at the Indian settlement of Prairie du 
Chien, and had left them in charge of Langlade, the 
king's interpreter; and also that the Americans were 
in great force in the Illinois country. 

By request of the commanding officer at Mackinaw, 
Long went to Prairie du Chien, with twenty Canadians, 

^ These uncouth lines are from a he seems to have been popular with 

volume of miscellanies published by the traders. When he was ordered 

DePeyster, at Dumfries, Scotland, in to another post, they presented him 

1812, in the possession of Hon. L. C. with a silver punch bowl, gilt inside. 

Draper, Secretary of the Wisconsin holding a gallon and a half, and a 

Historical Society. De Peyster's wife silver ladle, as a mark of regard, 
accompanied him to Mackinaw, and 



230 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

and thirty-six Fox and Dahkotah Indians, in nine large 
birch canoes. 

One day, while camping on the Wisconsin river, they 
discovered a small log hut, m which was a trader, with 
his arms cut off, lying on his back, who had been mur- 
dered by the Indians. 

The next day the expedition arrived at the " Forks 
of the Mississippi," where two hundred Fox Indians, on 
horseback, armed with spears, bows, and arrows, awaited 
them. Among the Dahkotah Indians of the party was 
Wapashaw, by whose order the birch canoes were brought 
to the shore. Upon landing the Foxes greeted Wapashaw 
and his party, and invited them to a feast of dog, bear, 
and beaver meat. 

After the feast a council was called, when the chief 
of the Foxes addressed Wapashaw to this effect : — 

" Brothers, we are happy to see you ; we have no 
bad heart against you. Although we are not the same 
nation by language, our hearts are the same. We are 
all Indians, and are happy to hear that our Great Father 
has pity on us, and sends us wherewithal to cover us, 
and enable us to hunt." 

To which Wapashaw replied : — 

" It is true, my children, our Great Father, has sent 
me this way to take the skins and furs that are in the 
Dog's Field (Prairie du Chien), under Captain Lang- 
lade's charge, lest the Great Knives (Americans) should 
plunder them. I am come with the white men to give 
you wherewithal to cover you, and ammunition to 
hunt." 

Arriving at Prairie du Chien, the peltries were found 
in a log-house, guarded by Captain Langlade and some 
Indians. After resting a short period, the canoes were 



FORMATION OF NORTH-WEST COMPANY. 231 

filled with three hundred packs of the best skins, and 
the balance burned to keep them from the Americans, 
who a few days afterwards arrived for the purpose 
of attacking the post. 

At this period the M'dewakantonwan Dahkotahs had 
retired from the region of Mille Lac, and were residing 
at Penneshaw's^ post, on the Minnesota, a few miles 
above its mouth. 

After the disturbance of commerce, incident to the 
cession of Canada, had ceased, the trade in furs began 
to revive. In the year 1766, traders left Mackinaw, 
and proceeded as far as Kamanistigoya, thirty miles 
east of Grand Portage. Thomas Curry shortly after 
ventured as far as the valley of the Saskatchewan, and 
his success in obtaining furs mduced a Mr. James Fin- 
lay to establish a post in the same valley, as high as 
the forty-eighth and a half degree of latitude. 

The Hudson Bay Company were uneasy at this en- 
croachment of private enterprise upon the territory, and 
endeavoured to counteract it, though without success. 

About the year 1780, two estabhshments on the 
Assiniboiae river were destroyed by the Indians, and a 
plot laid to extirpate the traders, but that "noisome 
pestilence," the small pox, breaking out among the 
tribes, their attention was diverted. 

During the winter of 1783-4, there was a partnership 
formed by a number of traders, which was called the 
North-west Company. There were at first but sixteen 
shares, and the management of the whole was entrusted 
to the brothers Frobisher and McTavish, at Montreal. 

A few that were dissatisfied, formed an opposition 

^ The same individual called Penneshon and Pinchon. 



232. HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

company, one of the members of which was the explorer 
and author Alexander Mackenzie. After a keen rivalry, 
this company was merged with the North-west in 1787, 
and the number of shares was increased to twenty. 

From that time the fur trade of the north-west was 
systematized. The agents at Montreal received, the 
goods from England, and two of them went every year 
to the Grand Portage of Lake Superior, to receive packs 
and ship the furs for Europe. 

In 1798, the company was re-organized, new partners 
admitted, and the shares increased to forty-six. 

The magnitude of the operations of the company sur- 
prise us. At the close of the last century, they em- 
ployed fifty clerks, seventy-one interpreters, eleven 
hundred and twenty canoe-men. Five clerks, eighteen 
guides, and three hundred and fifty canoe-men were 
employed between the head of Lake Superior and Mon- 
treal. The others were in Minnesota, and the country 
above. The canoe-men were known as " Pork Eaters," 
or " Goers and Comers," and " Winterers," the latter so 
called because they entered' the interior and passed the 
winter in traffic with the Indians, received double wages, 
and were hired from one to three years. The clerks 
were a kind of apprentices, and received a salary of one 
hundred pounds, with their board and clothing, with 
the prospect of being taken into partnership, if they 
proved good busmess men. The guides and interpreters 
were paid in goods. 

In July the " Winterers" began to assemble at Grand 
Portage to settle their accounts and receive new outfits, 
and at times more than one thousand were congregated. 
The mode of living at the Portage was truly baronial. 
The proprietors, clerks, guides, and interpreters all ate in 



TRADERS AT SANDY LAKE AND PINE RIVER. 233 

one large hall, at different tables, and, the labours of the 
day over, the fiddlers were brought in and there was a 
merry time. The trader in his lonely outpost, con- 
sidered the reunions at Lake Superior halcyon days, and 
was buoyed up by anticipating the annual visit. 

The love of adventure has often led educated young 
men "into the woods," as well as "before the mast." 
Sailor Hfe and Indian trade, unless there is strong reli- 
gious principle, are apt to render one " earthly, sensual 
and devilish." There have been scenes enacted in Min- 
nesota which will never be known till the judgment 
day, for ignorance of which we should be grateful. 

The history of one trader at an outpost, is substan- 
tially the history of all. 

In the year 1784, Alexander Kay visited Montreal 
to obtain an outfit for the purpose of trading at Fon du 
Lac, Leech Lake, and vicinity in Minnesota. A young 
man, educated at the College of Quebec, named 
Perrault, became his clerk. They arrived at La Pointe 
on the first of November. 

On the little lake at the entrance of the St. Louis 
river, they found the quarters of Default, a clerk of the 
North-west Company. 

Kay while here was mad, in consequence of intoxica- 
tion, and with obstinacy pushed up the St. Louis river, 
with only a bag of flour, a keg of butter, and of sugar, 
while his party consisted of his squaw mistress, 
Perrault, and fourteen employees. At the portage of 
the river he met his partner, Mr. Harris, also without 
food, except some salt meat. 

The men now remonstrated with Kay about proceed- 
ing inland, with no provision for the winter ; but draw- 



234 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

ing a pistol, he threatened to shoot those that did not 
follow. 

Taking Mr. Harris, an Indian named Big Marten, 
and seven men, he pushed on in advance, and the next 
day sent back word that he had gone on to Pine River,^ 
and desiring his clerk to winter at the Savanne portage 
if possible. 

After eleven days' hard toil amid ice and snow, sub- 
sisting on the pods of the wild rose, and the sap of 
trees, Perrault and the men reached the point designated. 
For a time they lived there on a few roots and fish, but 
about Christmas, hunger compelled them to seek their 
employer at Pine River. Weak in body, they passed 
through Sandy Lake, descended the river, and at last 
arrived at Kay's post at Pine River. After he was 
recruited, Perrault was despatched to the Savanne 
portage, where, with his men, he built a log hut. 

Toward the close of February, Brechet, Big Marten, 
and other Ojibway Indians, brought in meat. Mr. Kay 
shortly after visited his clerk, and told the troubles he 
had with the Indians, who exceedingly hated him. In 
April Kay and Perrault visited Sandy Lake, where Bras 
Casse, or Broken Arm, or Bo-koon-ik, was the Ojibway 
chief. On the second of May, Kay went out to meet 
his partner Harris coming from Pine River. 

During his absence, Katawabada,^ and Mongozid, and 
other Indians, came and demanded rum. After much 
entreaty Perrault gave them a little. Soon Harris, 
Kay, and Pinot arrived, all intoxicated. The Indians, 
were ripe for mischief. An Indian, named Le Cousin 

^ Pine River is a tributary of the possible to reach Leech Lake by this 
Mississippi, about a day's journey stream. 

in a canoe from Sandy Lake. It is ^ Katawabada or Parted Teeth, 

died at Sandy Lake 1828, 



KAY WOUNDED IN A DRUNKEN REVEL. 235 

by the French, came to Kay's tent, and asked for rum, 
Kay told him " No," and pushed him out ; the Indian then 
drew a concealed knife, and stabbed him in the neck. 
Kay, picking up a carving knife, chased him, but before 
he could reach his lodge, the passage was blocked up by 
Indians. 

The assailant's mother, approaching Kay, said, " Eng- 
lishman ! do you come to kill me ?" and, while implor- 
ing for her son, with savage cruelty stabbed him in the 
side. 

Le Petit Mort, a friend of the wounded trader, took 
up his quarrel, and sallying forth, seized Cul Blanc, an 
Ojibway, by the scalp lock, and, drawing his head back, 
he plunged a knife into his breast, exclaiming "Die, 
thou dog !" 

The Indian women, becoming alarmed at this bac- 
chanal, went into the lodges and emptied out all the 
rum they could find. 

On the fifth of May, Kay's wound was better, and 
sending for Harris and Perrault to come to his tent, he 
said : — 

" Gentlemen, you see my situation ; I have determined 
to leave you at all hazards, to set out for Mackinaw, 
with seven men, accompanied by the Bras Casse and 
wife. Assort the remainder of the goods, ascend to 
Leech Lake, and wait there for the return of the Pil- 
lagers, who are out on the prairies. Complete the inland 
trade." 

Kay, then taking hold of Perrault's hand, Harris 
having retired, said : — 

" My dear friend ! you understand the language of 
the OjibwaV''^. Mr. Harris would go out with me, but 
he must accompany you. He is a good trader, but he 



236 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

has, like myself and others, a strong passion for drink- 
ing, which takes away his judgment." 

In the afternoon Kay left, in a litter, for Macldnaw. 
Perrault and Harris proceeded to Leech Lake, where 
they had a successful trade with the Pillagers. 

Returning to the Savannah river, they found J. 
Reaume there, and a Mr. Piquet. The former had 
wintered at the fort of Red Lake, at its entrance into 
Red River. 

They all proceeded by way of the Fond du Lac to 
Mackinaw, where they arrived on the twenty-fourth of 
May, and found Kay in much pain. The latter soon after 
this started for Montreal, but his wound suppurated on 
the journey, and he died at the Lake of the Two Moim- 
tains, August twenty-eighth, 1785.^ 

About the period of this occurrence, Prairie du Chien 
made its transition, from a temporary encampment of 
Indians and their traders, to a hamlet. Among the 
first settlers were Giard, Antaya, and Dubuque. 

In the year 1780, the wife of Peosta, a Fox warrior, 
discovered a large vein of lead, in Iowa, on the west 
banli of the Mississippi. 

At a council held at Prairie du Chien, in 1788, Juhen 
Dubuque obtained permission to work the lead mines, 
on and near the site of the city that bears his name, 
and the bluff, on which is the little stone house that 
covers his remains. 

Towards the close of the last century we find Dick- 
son, Renville, Grignon, and others, trading with the 
Ojibways and Dahkotahs of Minnesota. In the employ- 

^ " History, condition, and pros- Mr. Schoolcraft says that Harris 
pects of the Indian Tribes of the was a native of Albany, and was 
United States," vol. iii. alive in 1830. 



JUDGE PERLIER, TRADER IN MINNESOTA. 237 

ment of the latter, at his trading-house on the river 
St. Croix, was James Perlier, a youth, who in the next 
century became one of the most useful citizens of Green 
Bay, Wisconsin. He was a native of Montreal, and 
arrived at Green Bay in 1791. Two years after he was 
employed by an old trader, Pierre Grignon, to act as 
clerk, at his trading post on the St. Croix. While 
there he found, with a band of Menomonees, an inte- 
resting girl, the daughter of a woman that had been 
abandoned by a French trader, with whom he fell in 
love, and married. In the year 1797, in company with 
Dickson, he wintered near Sauk Rapids. When Pike 
visited the country he was still engaged in trading 
above the Falls of St. Anthony, and he gave this 
young officer much information, which he deemed valua- 
ble. Returning to Wisconsin he acted as chief justice 
of Brown county, for a period of sixteen years, and died 
in 1839, much respected. 

While Perlier was wintering on the St. Croix, a 
broken-down merchant of Montreal, who had married 
a lady of wealth in that city, a pompous and ignorant 
man, full of eccentricity, by the name of Charles 
Reaume, was his companion. To the early settlers of 
Green Bay he was known as Judge Reaume. While 
on the St. Croix the following anecdote is related of 
him : — 

" One day he invited Perher and other traders in the 
vicinity to dine with him. The guests had arrived, and 
the venison, cooked in bears' oil and maple sugar was 
prepared, when Amable ChevaUer, a half-breed, told 
Reaume that there were not plates enough on the table, 
as there was none for him. ' Yes, there are enough,' 
said Reaume, sternly; when the half-breed tore from 



238 HISTORY OF MINNESOTA. 

Eeaume's head his red cap, and spreading it upon the 
table, filled it with the hashed venison. Reaume, in 
retaliation, seizing a handful of meat, threw it into the 
half-breed's face. Becoming much excited, it was neces- 
sary for the guests to part the belligerents."^ 

In the year 1794, the North-west Company built an 
establishment at Sandy Lake, with bastions, and aper- 
tures in the angles for musketry. It was enclosed with 
pickets a foot square and thirteen feet in height. There 
were three gates, which were always closed after the 
Indians had received liquor. " The stockade enclosed 
two rows of buildings, containing the provision store, 
workshop, warehouse, room for clerks, and accommoda- 
tion for the men. On the west and south-west angles 
of the fort were four acres of ground, enclosed with 
pickets, and devoted to the culture of the potato." 

The British posts were not immediately surrendered 
after the treaty of 1783 between Great Britain and 
America, and led to some ill-feehng upon the part of 
the United States. When Baron Steuben was sent by 
Washington, in 1784, to Detroit, to take possession of 
the fort, the British commandant informed him that he 
had no authority to deliver up the post, as it was on 
Indian territory. By the presence of British officials 
among the Indian tribes, a hostile feeling was main- 
tained towards the citizens of the United States, which 
led to the wars with the Indians toward the close of the 
last century. 

In the treaty effected by Mr. Jay, Great Britain 
agreed to withdraw her troops from all posts and places 
within the boundary lines assigned by the treaty of 

^ Wisconsin Historical Society Collections, vol. iii. 



NORTH-WEST CO. ESTABLISH POSTS IN MINNESOTA. 239 

peace to the United States, on or before the first day 
of June, 1796. The treaty also provided that all British 
settlers and traders might remain for one year, and 
enjoy all their former privileges without being com- 
pelled to be citizens of the United States. 

Taking advantage of this clause, the North-west 
Company, through the Fond du Lac department, dotted 
every suitable place in Minnesota with trading posts. 

They not only encircled the lakes, but did not pay 
duties nor apply for licenses. At these posts the British 
flag was hoisted; and they frequently created civil 
chiefs among the Indians, to whom they presented the 
colours and medals of his Britannic majesty. 



23 JaTi.lBtVi. ji 



NEILL'S HISTOEY OF MINNESOTA, 

FROM ITS EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS 

UNDER THE 

FRENCH AND BRITISH GOVERNMENTS, 

TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



BY REV. EDW. DUFFIELD NEILL, 

SECRETARY OF THE MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETT. 



One Volume, Octavo, 628 pages. Price $2 50. On receipt of which 
the work will he sent by mail postpaid. 

This work, although the history of but one State, is a contribu- 
tion to the general history of the Confederacy. It is the result 
of careful and widely-extended research, and written in a style so 
plain and graphic that it can be read aloud to those who gather, 
on a winter's night, around the capacious fireplace of a frontiers- 
man's cabin. At the same time, the facts concerning the opera- 
tions of the French Court in the Northwest in the last century, 
make it valuable on the parlor-table of the cultivated, in the book- 
case of the literary man, and in the libraries of schools and semi- 
naries. 

One copy, postage prepaid, sent for $2 50 to any address, by 
S. C. Griggs & Co., Chicago; or the Publishers, 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., Philadelphia. 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 

FROM HON. S. P. CHASE, 

GOVERNOR OP OHIO. 

"I have found the history of Minnesota very interesting. It 
exhibits, in striking lights, incredible progress." 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



FROM PROF. LONGFELLOW, 

AUTHOE OP "EVANGELINE" AND "HIAWATHA." 

"Your History of Minnesota I have looked over with much 
interest. * * * * j (Jq not see how the work can be re- 
garded otherwise than as an important contribution to our his- 
toric literature." 



FROM REV. S. R. RIGGS, 

MISSIONARY AMONG THE DAHKOTAHS. 

" Mr. Neill has, from the commencement of his residence in Min- 
nesota, interested himself in the history, customs, conditions, and 
language of the Aborigines, and, perhaps, I might say, especially 
of the Dahkotahs. He is, therefore, in most respects, a very fit man 
to represent them to the world. I know of no man, not connected 
with our missionary work, who has sympathized with its difficulties 
and made himself acquainted with its results, to a greater extent 
than Mr. Neill. And I may add, he has not failed to do ample 
justice. 

"As a collection of historical incidents, it is very interesting and 
valuable ; and as such I most cordially commend it to every one 
who desires to know more of Minnesota, past and present, than he 
can obtain from any other source." 



FROM THE DAILY MINNESOTIAN, (St. Paul.) 

" Few will appreciate the immense labor, distributed through a 
period of nine years, which this work has cost its author. As it is 
read over, and we observe the great mass of facts which it con- 
tains, new and entirely original with this work, and relating to the 
very early history of Minnesota, — embodying the travels of the 
first explorers, the operations of the first Indian traders, the trans- 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 3 

actions and shifting relations of the Indian tribes who were its 
primitive inhabitants, — the mass of its readers we fear will scarcely 
bestow a thought upon the difficulties that have been surmounted 
by the persevering industry of Mr. Neill in giving this work to the 
world. " 



FROM THE NORTH WESTERN HOME JOURNAL, (Chicago.) 

"We confess to a high degree of satisfaction in reading this 
book. The publishers have done their work well. The binding, 
type, and plates, are neat and excellent. The reader will get 
through the six hundred pages, and more, without either a pain in 
his eyes or his heart. 

"But what — asks the person who has not yet seen the book, and 
scarcely ever heard of the subject of which it treats — what can 
there be in a history of Minnesota worthy of so much applause ? 
Very much indeed — romance enough to eke out a dozen novels." 



FROM THE WASHINGTON UNION. 

"Mr. Neill has executed his work in a very creditable manner. 
* * * * -^e have twice explored the Territory of Minnesota 
up to the boundary-line of the British Possessions, traversing the 
forests, and navigating those majestic lakes in a frail birch canoe, 
and we can bear personal testimony to the truth of Mr. Neill's 
warm eulogies of the beauty and fertility of the immense tracts of 
country in the new State, which are yet undisturbed even by the 
pioneer's axe." 



FROM THE PHILADELPHIA EVENING BULLETIN. 

"This is not only a very scholarly but a very curious and inte- 
resting book — one, too, presenting no inconsiderable claim to be 
ranked among the first-class works of American history." 



RECOMMENDATIONS. 



FROM THE PRESS, (Philadelphia.) 

"In some resj'ects, this volume deserves to be estimated as an 
important contribution to historical and topographical literature. 
Mr. Neill has evidently brought industry, ability, research, per- 
sonal knowledge, and unscrupulous honesty to the execution of 
this, his self-imposed task. It will be difficult — we might say im- 
possible — to supersede this work, so copious and satisfactory are 
its details. Messrs. Lippincott, the publishers, have presented it 
to the public in their most attractive manner." 



FROM THE HOME JOURNAL, (New York.) 

"All who take any interest in the progress of our western coun- 
try will read this fine volume with satisfaction. It contains a large 
amount of facts and statistics, together with much entertaining 
reading matter — including biographical sketches, graphic descrip- 
tions of scenery, etc. etc. In a word, it will amply repay perusal." 



FROM THE HISTORICAL MAGAZINE, (New York.) 

" This work bears the impress of authority — that authority which 
derives its weight from careful investigation, and a sincere desire 
to ascertain and promulgate the truth. * * * * jyj ^.^ Weill's 
volume may be safely commended as one of the most readable 
books on the history of the new States in the West, and well de- 
serving an attentive perusal." 



PKICE 50 CENTS. 



^^ 0^./^^>c -4^*^ cT 

"S. ^ 

DAHKOTAH LAND ^ 



DAHKOTAH LIFE, 



HISTORY OF THE FUR TRADERS OF THE EXTREME NORTHWEST 



D0RING THE 



FRENCH AND BRITISH DOMINIONS. 



By EDW. D. NEILL, 

SErnKTAKV OP THE MINNKSOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



• Nearer, nurl ever nearer, among the immlierless islands 
Darted a light, swift boat, that sped away o'er the water, 
Urged on its course by the sinewy arms of liunters and trappers; 
Northward its prow was turned, to the land of the bison and beaver." 

LOXGFKLLOW'S EVANOELINE. 



(^ PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

CHICAGO: S. C. GRIGGS & CO. 

AND BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY. 
1859. 



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